All of the blood sacrifices in the Old Testament were but shadows....and could not take away sins....and what good they did had to be repeated again and again. What they did do is point to the perfect....once for all....sacrifice of the Lamb of God.....for our sins. The people could not see this. They expected a returning messiah in power....but those who were given a new heart....and eyes to see and ears to hear....saw what the sacrifices pointed to....and rejoiced at what Jesus had done for them....and us....on Calvary's cross.
It is somewhat similar to how the prophets of God in the Old Testament....Isaiah and Jeremiah and Micah and all of them....spoke not only to the people of their day....but to us....to us not only in the last days....but the last of the last days.
Prophecies of judgment were given to either Israel or Judah....or the whole nation....or pagan nations. They were specific to the people who were in rebellion to God.....but they were also to us. They do not say....America or Britain....they do not have to....for when we.....America or Britain or anywhere in the world....follow almost an exact path as rebellious Israel or Judah....then God is also speaking judgment to us....but we....just as the Jews could not see their messiah....cannot see our coming king.
The Jews could not see Jesus of Nazareth as their messiah....even though the prophets gave them enough information. Consequently....the same prophets have given us enough information on God's judgment that is coming....clear enough that it should send us to our knees....but we also....cannot see what is right before us.....but some of us can see....and all of will eventually see....that when God....through Amos....(4:12)....told Israel...."Prepare to meet thy God"....that He was also giving those words to us in America.
The church in America has essentially...."left its first love'....as did the church in Ephesus. Given a multiple choice test on basic doctrine....we would probably pass with flying colors....but the 'A' would be grossly misleading. We no longer even see our Savior as glorious....or our King as powerful. What kind of love is this when we go all day long without....longing to even read his words to us? Long gone is our zeal to see others come into the kingdom....not even our own children! For we are more into legislation today....keeping what we have....that is perishing anyway. We are every bit the passenger on the Titanic just after it grazed the iceberg....kept in the dark by our captain/shepherds as to the severity of the damage.....so as not to cause panic....because they forgot to bring the lifeboat....which was just in the way on such a glorious and powerful and unsinkable ship....or as to us today....ship of state.
Addendum: I want to expound on my comment that we in the church do not even have evangelistic zeal for our own children. It is most definitely not because we do not love them...for we probably love them....or treasure them....more than we should. It is because we are quickly becoming ignorant of how a soul is saved. We seem no longer to even have a clue on what being born again means....therefore also not the need to be born again. We look at them....our precious loved ones that we raised from infancy....and in our ignorance think that surely God will accept them....however weak their Christian profession may be. So there indeed is a love there....but it can be a 'love' that leads to perishing. Famously....Augustine's Christian mother Monica....prayed earnestly for decades for his salvation. Augustine knew this....and praised her later for her faithfulness! It is similar with parents....and in a way more troubling....for the Christian may know that their parent does not have a saving faith in Christ....but pray as they might....it is hard for an older person....or an elderly person....whose heart has been hardened for a long lifetime....to admit they were wrong....and to admit it to their children. It gets even more troubling....when the parent is deceased....for we cannot accept the fact that our parent may have gone on to everlasting judgment....because we blocked the need for regeneration and being born again from our mind....or because we did not want to offend our beloved parent by insinuating that the church they belonged to for a half century....never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ within its walls. The short answer friends....is to pray....even to plead.....for the salvation of our children....and our parents if they are still with us!
note: this is one long addendum...and I may turn it into a post in itself.
