CF family,
I think I'll always treasure this "sound" of the ministering High Priest making atonement for the sins of the people after this week's message. I can imagine the fugitives in crowds around the tabernacle......pin-dropping silent.....and listening to the ministering Priest behind the veil and the ringing of the bell that told all he still lived. It makes me hear the bell as Christ preaches on the mount....as He walks on the water.....as He cleanses the temple....as He washes the disciple's feet.....and then as He goes from trial to trial, beaten and mocked.........and then dragging a cross-beam to Golgotha. I can hear the bell as He heaves on Calvary.....as He thirsts. And then the silence as He breathes His last. What a pregnant horrible silence that must have been for the disciples, for Mary and Martha, for His family members....for Joseph of Arimathea.
Can you imagine "hearing" this silence while you stood with the fugitives outside the tabernacle on the Day of Atonement? What would happen to your sin? Would you be consumed by a Holy God? Or condemned? Would your fate be like the fates of Nadab and Abihu? Can you imagine the looks on people's faces in the crowds if the High Priest's bell stopped ringing!??!
But then......after you've imagined this for a moment....imagine the joy that would come when you hear the bell ring again!!!! Just when you thought all was lost and you were doomed.......imagine hearing it ring as He burst forth from a borrowed tomb on a dewy Sunday morning!?!? Then know that since that first Easter morning every note and every plink of every piano key or guitar string or vocal chord or cymbal joins these tiny bells in song as we worship a risen and reigning and ruling King and High Priest!
That's hope fodder right there, people of God. That'll give you some perspective as you go about this week whatever you face. I hope and pray you're hearing the bells.
I love y'all and am so blessed to serve you,
Ben
