Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.

This blood sacrifice makes atonement for the soul, and is God’s sense of justice, His satisfaction. The literal translation of atonement is to cover, to conceal sin so as that it cannot be seen. It is an important distinction that the viewpoint is from above, to satisfy God.

The high priest sprinkled the blood by the horns of the mercy seat once a year. Only the high priest could do this. Jesus Christ is our high priest, only He can atone for our sins. There is much to be learned about this blood sacrifice but for this devotional I would like to focus on the issue of once.

Our God is eternal, time is meaningless to Him. We are not eternal. We are born, we die and each year we see a generation of sinners that are not covered because the atoning blood sacrifice is dead. We are in time and often forget our eternal God sees things from a different perspective. We focus on year and He focuses of once. One is the first number and we find over and over again within scriptures the issue of first.

Abel’s respected sacrifice was the firstlings in Genesis 4:4. Cain the firstborn of Eve was the first to commit murder. The mountain tops appeared in the receding waters of Noah’s flood on the first day of the month. Israel is the firstborn of the Lord, Exodus 4:22. All the firstborn that were not covered by the blood of the lamb died in the first Passover, Exodus 11:5.

Leviticus 2:12 As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the Lord: but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour.

Jesus Christ God’s only begotten (firstborn) was not sacrificed as a burnt offering.

Hebrews 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

I left off yesterday saying that the law is a mirror to show us what we are, sinners. This prescription of sacrifices made under the Levitical law is a foreshadowing of things to come and not the express image of that thing itself, tells us that this also is an image of things to come.

Exodus 30:10 And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the Lord.

This atonement is upon the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant, once a year, blood for the sin offering. Aaron the first high priest, the first to receive instructions for the atonement of sin for the nation. He is a foreshadowing image of another high priest.

Hebrews 8:1-2 Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

Hebrews 9:11-12 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.