But Jesus

When the hour had come, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.  Luke 22:14-20 NASB

Wow. What a reassuring, overwhelmingly heavy promise. We live in uncertain times. There are no end to the issues humanity faces and yet we as followers of Christ are repeatedly asked to “Fear not”. It gives us reason to believe then, stress and hardships are inevitable but that fear is a choice. Anxiety is a choice. Doubt is a choice. Imagine back to living in a time when we couldn’t access God directly but had to go through priests who mediated for us? What if the only way we knew God was found in a pillar of fire and cloud, who thundered and shook the earth when He came down to speak to His chosen prophets?

Exodus 33:21-23 NLT The Lord continued, Look, stand near Me on this rock. As My glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove My hand and let you see me from behind. But My face will not be seen.

Moses was one such chosen man who spoke to God and was never the same again. God then gave Moses the task of anointing Aaron and his sons for the priesthood while also laying down the law, so to speak. 

The law had instructions on how the Israelites could serve God better and to love Him wholeheartedly. 

That was not all, there were laws related to offerings being made on several occasions. These offerings were grain offerings, burnt offerings, sin offerings and served to bring atonement and restitution to those who offered them. 

I’m certain It would have been tedious, painstaking and a little nerve wracking to keep track of all the required sacrifices in a year. 

And as we can probably relate to - the people didn’t keep up their side of the bargain and ended up abandoning God and chasing foreign religions and embracing pagan cultures. Reading the Old Testament it seemed like there was no way man could meet God’s expectations.  

No way but Jesus.