The Need for Sacrifice
Only by the blood of a perfect sacrifice can anyone be made acceptable to God. God said, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways”. Isaiah 55:8. God’s way is that we MUST be justified only by the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ. There is no other way to gain favour with God.
In the book of Judges there is the story of civil war in Israel (Judges chapters 19-21). Some men of the tribe of Benjamin were guilty of rape and murder of a woman. Her husband cut her body into twelve pieces and sent them to the twelve tribes of Israel. The eleven tribes demanded of the tribe of Benjamin that they deliver the wicked men up for punishment, which meant capital punishment in those days. The tribe of Benjamin refused and marshalled their forces to defend the wicked men. First, God told the eleven tribes to send the tribe of Judah to lead the battle against the Benjamites. Judah was a larger tribe than Benjamin, so they should have been able to defeat them. However, the Benjamites soundly defeated the Judahites and Israel fled from Benjamin. Again the Lord told the eleven tribes to attack the Benjamites, and again the Benjamites defeated the Israelites, even though the Israelites outnumbered them more than ten to one. Finally the eleven tribes did what they should have done in the beginning. They made a sacrifice to God. “Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the Lord, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord”. Judges 20:26. After that God told them to attack the Benjamites again, and this time they nearly obliterated Benjamin, killing all of the women, all of the children, all of the cattle, all but six hundred of the men, and burning all of their cities up. However, God had mercy on Benjamin, thanks to another sacrifice (Judges 21:2-4). The six hundred surviving men took wives from the other tribes and started to rebuild their tribe. The story shows that God demands sacrifice. There is no other way to win God’s favour. If the sacrifice of animals could win God’s favour for the eleven tribes, just think what the sacrifice of Jesus Christ could do for our people today.
In our day most people ignore the great sacrifice of God’s Son. They try to be justified by their own good works. They believe they are accepted by God because they are good living people. If you were to attend almost any funeral in the nation, you would find that people always say the deceased soul has gone to heaven. Based on popular opinion, the verdict is that almost everyone has eternal life. People believe that if a man provides for his family, treats his fellow man well, is honest, and gives to charity, he will go to heaven when he dies. How wrong they are. God demands sacrifice. That is the reason for the cross. Jesus said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”. Matthew 7:13,14. The narrow gate and the narrow way is Jesus Christ Himself. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me”. John 14:6.
We must believe in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and ask God to accept us because of His sacrifice for our sins. We must ask Jesus Christ to come into us and He will do that by the Holy Spirit. Only in that way can we enter into eternal life. There is no other way. The Israelites in the book of Judges kept all of the law but ignored the law of sacrifice. By the time they acknowledged the law of sacrifice they had lost tens of thousands of men. How many of our people will die before we nationally ask God to forgive our sins? When will we trust in the sacrifice He gave us? God will be pleading with our people in the coming years. We do not need to suffer as a nation through the coming turmoil. The words of Jesus remain. “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. Matthew 4:17.
