Without the Shedding of Blood

1 Kings 8
I have read this chapter many times... with AWE!
Solomon had finished building the temple after 7 years. And after some additional time, they were sacrificing sheep and oxen while bringing the ark up to the temple....verse 5 says...
King Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for multitude.

 
COULD NOT BE COUNTED FOR MULTITUDE !!!
 
I cannot visualize the sacrificial event at the dedication of the temple....
 
And then, when all was in place, the Glory of the Lord filled the House of the Lord... 
Then Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to the Lord, twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep.
1 Kings 8:63 (also 2 Chron. 7:5)
 
All that blood!
Can we comprehend how much blood must have been shed? It boggles my mind!
We read twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep, not to mention the previous sheep and oxen which could not be numbered!
I’ve never even seen that many animals alive let alone bleeding!
 
Did all that blood save anyone? No!
 
Could I shed enough of my own blood to satisfy the Law? Yes... but unto death. There is no salvation in the blood of sheep and oxen... or bulls or goats... no reconciliation, no redemption, no justification, and no sanctification. And my own blood cannot save me, but it does satisfy the Law...
The soul that sins shall die. Ezekiel 18:20
  
But Jesus’s shedding of His blood in our place is Life Eternal for us, by faith.
 
Then in Luke 24:39 after the resurrection, Jesus presented Himself to His disciples who thought they were seeing a ghost, we read... Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”
 
That is an unusual phrase for me. I am not used to saying flesh and bones when referring to anyone, and I think the common phrase is “flesh and blood.” But Jesus makes no reference to “blood” at that time after His resurrection. He shed His blood on the cross for us, and it was presented on the Mercy Seat as the propitiation for our sins.
"Now, Christ is Himself "that which propitiates" and "the place of propitiation" ...the mercy-seat sprinkled with His own blood." ~Scofield
 
Heb. 9:22 says...
and without the shedding of blood there is no remission (of sin).
Which means... by the shedding of Jesus’ blood, we are released from bondage; we are forgiven and pardoned; the punishment we deserve has been cancelled.
 
When I was younger... a young boy, my father, being old country Italian and catholic, would buy a live lamb, a baby lamb, every year at Easter time. He would bring it home alive and hang it up on a suitable branch by its hind legs... head down. I was compelled to go along because I was the oldest and needed to experience this old country Italian traditional ritual, he thought. I don’t know why? I had no choice.
 
So, as you all might be thinking ahead... he slit its throat. You’re probably thinking this lamb was screaming like a stuck pig? No... relatively quiet. An occasional normal bleating, if I recall correctly.
 
Acts 8:32 (and Isaiah 53:7)... “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth.
Except to say, “It is finished!”
 
Oh Jesus, and our Father in Heaven, HOW we praise you and worship you for this undeserved, unmerited gift; more precious than all the gold and wealth of the world, more precious than 10,000 times 10,000 sheep and oxen. I cannot fathom the entirety of Your sacrifice. It is the most humbling thing I can meditate on. It is by my faith in Your faithfulness in shedding Your precious blood that I am redeemed, and an eternity of worshipful gratitude would not be enough, but perhaps an eternity of love might be. Our Father, in Jesus’s name I pray. Amen

Shared July 2, 2023; Breaking of Bread service, Wellspring Bible Fellowship