Culture Shift

I was reading in exodus last night in bed. I think it was close to chapter 26. It spoke of consecrating Aaron and his two sons for the work of a priest. It went into detail about the clothes they are to wear, but then it went on to a consecration ceremony. Reading this is pretty weird.

Sacrifice a bull and poor some of it's blood on the alter. Take it's liver and kidneys and burn them on the alter. Then get rid of rest of it by burning it outside of the area.

Take a ram and sprinkle it's blood on the sides of the alter. Put some blood on the right ear lob, right thumb, right big toe. Cut the body in pieces and burn it.

Take another ram and perpare it for food. Aaron and his sons now eat this at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

When I read that i was thinking of how different things were. Could you imagine being there for this? I don't know if I could handle the sight of all that blood. But then I thought about it some more, and this was the culture they were raised in. It wasn't really all that different, it was part of their lives. I think I lose a bit perspective sometimes, and reading this helps put in perspective what our sin does. We are sinners, and it requires blood to be made clean. This isn't just a figure of speech, it requires blood. The life of Christ was poured out as an offering for our sins.