Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Why doesn't God destroy our wicked world now? There is an answer in the sanctuary service of Israel:
Two lambs were offered "daily" on the altar of burnt offering, morning and evening, in behalf of everyone within the boundaries of Israel. Strangers and Gentiles were included as the beneficiaries. No repentance was required, no confession; no questions were asked; the lambs were offered continually, whether anybody believed or not (Ex. 29:38-42). All you had to do was to be a human being, and you were under the umbrella of God's abounding grace.
This was the gospel by "moonlight" (Rev. 12:1). As we come to the "sunlight" of the New Testament, the meaning is made clear: "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself" (2 Cor. 5:19). As a wise writer has said, "God has encircled the world with an atmosphere of grace as real as the air [we breathe]."
The daily service of the two lambs was a ministry for the whole world. When Jesus came to John asking for baptism, John refused. Jesus had to give him a Bible study there in the water, convincing John that He was the antitypical Lamb of the daily service. "Then he allowed Him" (Matt. 3:15).
The next day John introduced Him, saying, "Behold! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). Not "maybe," "perhaps," or "He would like to be," or "He takes away the sin of a few." Why this universal sacrifice of atonement? "He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world" (1 John 2:2).
The "incense" offered on the altar of incense daily or continually was also a type of a universal ministry of intercession. Only the blood of Jesus continually ministered keeps this wicked world from being destroyed (Rev. 8:3-5).
Thank God He still ministers today in the Most Holy Apartment! You and I can respond today! And that's Good News!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 19, 1998.
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