WALKING AND PRAYING MY WAY TO ISRAEL (8)

Snow can be an inconvenience, a hazard, and a danger to be on. But it can also be beautiful and a great way of covering up all the ugly.

We Notice some interesting references to snow in the Scripture
Job 38:22Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?...

Psalm 51:7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Isaiah 1:18Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

This recent snowfall was beautiful as it came down and as it turned the landscape into a pure white blanket. No longer could I see the grease spot in front of my car, the crack and chip in the pavement in front of our apartment, dirt and debris that had fallen off cars traveling on the street, nor the dead and broken stems on some of the evergreens planted in our flower bed.

Oh, By The Way, God has a covering for the ugly of our lives. Sin is the one thing that cannot be removed by good deeds, reformation, or resolution. It takes something from God to cover our sin, our guilt, our spiritual ugliness.

In the Old Testament, the only Holy celebration for the Hebrews which was a fast instead of a feast was Yom Kipper. Yom Kipper means "day of atonement." It was when the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies with the blood of sacrifice and sprinked it on the Mercy Seat, which was above the Ark of the Covenant, between the two Cherubim or Angels. Atonement and Mercy Seat both refer to covering. One very important item in the Ark was the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. We could never be saved by those commandments. They simply show us how ugly and sinful we really are. From God's point of view, He looked through the blood to see the law.

The Scripture says in Hebrews 9; 22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.or(NIV)

All the ugly is under the snow, but of course the snow is temporary. But all the ugliness of sin is under His blood, and this blood is permanent.
23 So the copies of the real things in heaven had to be made clean by animal sacrifices. But the real things in heaven need much better sacrifices.

24 Christ did not go into the Most Holy Place made by humans, which is only a copy of the real one. He went into heaven itself and is there now before God to help us.

25 The high priest enters the Most Holy Place once every year with blood that is not his own. But Christ did not offer himself many times.

26 Then he would have had to suffer many times since the world was made. But Christ came only once and for all time at just the right time to take away all sin by sacrificing himself.(New Century Version)

The road to that New Jerusalem, that New Israel is a blood sprinkled way, It is not paved with good intentions, creative engineering innovations, or man's artistic and architectural wonders, but it is paved with the blood of a once for all Savior. Praise His Holy Name!

THOT: WE ARE EITHER UNDER THE BLOOD OR UNDER JUDGEMENT