Sword & Trowel 2018: Issue 2


The Tabernacle, lithograph with watercolour. Courtesy: Wellcome Collection


commitment. In those days, salt was precious.


Perhaps an offerer may have thought it wasteful extravagance to use salt on an offering to be immediately burned up. But they must do it because the symbol of permanence and duration was so important. And if we come be- fore God pleading for his forgiveness, and pleading the provided righteous- ness of Christ, we must intend to strive to maintain righteousness in ourselves. God gives security, and we must give faithfulness. We cannot here reflect on the five


different kinds of offering in the worship of the Old Covenant that reflect aspects of the atoning death of Christ. For the moment we may think of the immense amount of


preparation that the people of old were required to make. It leads us to ask — how much preparation do we do for worship? For some on Sunday mornings it is a sprint from the bed to the back gallery of the church, in our case the very back row of the rear gallery, because that is all the space that is left, or even further back in the CCTV areas. Where is the prepara- tion for worship? What if God had caused us to be born in the old era, when you had to carefully select your perfect animal, then get it to the place of worship, then execute it yourself, then skin it, and finally hand it to the priests as a token of your heartfelt repentance? We have the light of the Gospel, and the unencumbered sim- plicity of worship that it has brought,


True Repentance for Believers page 21


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