The Temple as abattoir
No flies on Jesus…The Temple as abattoir
Hi guys. Thought I’d better start turning heart words to screen words. Since Good Friday is around the corner there’s a lot on which to ponder.
I’ve been thinking for some months about ‘conditions inside the temple’ in Jerusalem, especially as the sacrifices occurred. This was triggered by a statement I made spontaneously during Christmas worship that I’d been tempted to go to a local horse stable and get a bucket of the ‘good stuff’ to put behind the crib scene, with a fan running over it, to create a smell of authenticity.
So my thoughts ran to what would be authentic in the Jerusalem Temple at the time of the ritual slaughter of the lambs at Passover time. It’s commonly agreed among scholars that at least 100,000 pilgrims would add themselves to the normal population of Jerusalem when the Passover Feast came around. There had to be at least 10 persons per slain lamb so there might have been up to 10,000 lambs had their throats cut on a single day!
That’s an aweful (!) lot of blood flowing. Some is used ritually, maybe all of it. At some point it begins to run with depth through the channel which takes it out to the valley of Hinnom where everything that is corrupt and rotting, rubbish and dungish, forms a ‘lake of fire’ which is continually burned to keep all that is filthy under control.
Now think to yourself…what is the first thing that happens when any of us gets a bodily cut? First on the scene is the fly, or rather the flies. Bees might go for the honeypot but it’s flies to blood. Can you even begin to imagine the thousands upon thousands of swarming flies which might descend upon the temple and its surrounds, especially that lake where the blood collects? Now ask yourself ‘who is it goes by the name “Lord of the flies”’? Beelzebub…identified as Satan by Jesus himself…the accuser.
Now in your spirit (in the Spirit) go stand at the foot of the Cross and observe your Lord, beset by flies for the whole time he hung there. This you observe, and then comes the Roman soldier who forces his spear into the heart of Jesus, already dead, and out comes ‘water and blood’ as one last feast for the devil!
And it is Satan/Beelzebub’s one last feast. The scripture clearly says that Christ died once for all…and thereby ends, for once and for all, the need for blood to be shed. Forgiveness of sins is established …it is finished …no more sacrifices needed. Ever. Sin dragged into death and left there. Can’t come back with Jesus when he’s raised from the dead. No more flies on Jesus. Ever.
Paul the Apostle begins Ch. 8 of his letter to the Roman church with this declaration: There is …no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus. No flies on Jesus…no flies on you and me.
May the Good Friday/Easter reflections find you ‘…in Christ Jesus’. And if you don’t know what that means then bloody well go and find out.
Bless even as you are being blessed.
Fred
Hi guys. Thought I’d better start turning heart words to screen words. Since Good Friday is around the corner there’s a lot on which to ponder.
I’ve been thinking for some months about ‘conditions inside the temple’ in Jerusalem, especially as the sacrifices occurred. This was triggered by a statement I made spontaneously during Christmas worship that I’d been tempted to go to a local horse stable and get a bucket of the ‘good stuff’ to put behind the crib scene, with a fan running over it, to create a smell of authenticity.
So my thoughts ran to what would be authentic in the Jerusalem Temple at the time of the ritual slaughter of the lambs at Passover time. It’s commonly agreed among scholars that at least 100,000 pilgrims would add themselves to the normal population of Jerusalem when the Passover Feast came around. There had to be at least 10 persons per slain lamb so there might have been up to 10,000 lambs had their throats cut on a single day!
That’s an aweful (!) lot of blood flowing. Some is used ritually, maybe all of it. At some point it begins to run with depth through the channel which takes it out to the valley of Hinnom where everything that is corrupt and rotting, rubbish and dungish, forms a ‘lake of fire’ which is continually burned to keep all that is filthy under control.
Now think to yourself…what is the first thing that happens when any of us gets a bodily cut? First on the scene is the fly, or rather the flies. Bees might go for the honeypot but it’s flies to blood. Can you even begin to imagine the thousands upon thousands of swarming flies which might descend upon the temple and its surrounds, especially that lake where the blood collects? Now ask yourself ‘who is it goes by the name “Lord of the flies”’? Beelzebub…identified as Satan by Jesus himself…the accuser.
Now in your spirit (in the Spirit) go stand at the foot of the Cross and observe your Lord, beset by flies for the whole time he hung there. This you observe, and then comes the Roman soldier who forces his spear into the heart of Jesus, already dead, and out comes ‘water and blood’ as one last feast for the devil!
And it is Satan/Beelzebub’s one last feast. The scripture clearly says that Christ died once for all…and thereby ends, for once and for all, the need for blood to be shed. Forgiveness of sins is established …it is finished …no more sacrifices needed. Ever. Sin dragged into death and left there. Can’t come back with Jesus when he’s raised from the dead. No more flies on Jesus. Ever.
Paul the Apostle begins Ch. 8 of his letter to the Roman church with this declaration: There is …no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus. No flies on Jesus…no flies on you and me.
May the Good Friday/Easter reflections find you ‘…in Christ Jesus’. And if you don’t know what that means then bloody well go and find out.
Bless even as you are being blessed.
Fred
posted by PastorFredVeerhuis at 4:44 PM
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