I was born in Palestine, nearly seventy years ago. As a child I was taught to read the law, the Psalms and the prophets. I attended the synagogue and learned Hebrew from rabbis. I believed what I was told, that ours was the true and only religion, but as I grew older and studied the law more intently, I was struck by the place the blood had in all ceremonies outlined there, and equally struck by its utter absence in ritual to which I was brought up. Again and again I read Exodus 12 and Leviticus 16 and 17, and the latter chapters especially made me tremble, as I thought of the great day of atonement and the place the blood had there. Day and night one verse would ring in my ears: “It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” I knew I had broken the law. I needed atonement. Year after year, on that day, I beat my breast as I confessed my need of it; but it was to be made by blood, and there was no blood!
In my distress I at last opened my heart to a learned and venerable rabbi. He told me that God was angry with His people; Jerusalem was in the hands of the Gentiles; the temple was destroyed and a Mohammedan mosque was reared up in its place. The only spot on this earth where we dared shed the blood of sacrifice, in accordance with Deuteronomy 12 and Leviticus 17, was desecrated and our nation scattered. That was why there was no blood. God had Himself closed the way to carry out the solemn service of the great day of atonement. Now we must turn to the Talmud, and rest on its instructions, and trust in the mercy of God and the merits of the fathers.
I tried to be satisfied, but could not. Something seemed to say that the law was unaltered, even though our temple was destroyed. Nothing else but blood could atone for the soul. We dare not shed blood for atonement elsewhere than in the place the Lord had chosen. Then we were left without an atonement at all. The thought filled me with horror. In my distress I consulted many other rabbis. I had but one great question, “Where can I find the blood of atonement?”
I was over thirty years of age when I left Palestine and came to Constantinople, with my still unanswered question ever before my mind, and my soul exceedingly troubled about my sins.
One night I was walking down one of the narrow streets of that city, when I saw a sign telling of a meeting for Jews. Curiosity led me to open the door and go in. Just as I took a seat I heard a man say: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” It was my first introduction to Christianity, but I listened breathlessly as the speaker told how God had declared that “Without shedding of blood is no remission,” but that He had given His only begotten Son, the Lamb of God, to die, and all who trusted in His blood were forgiven of their iniquities. This was the Messiah of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah; this was the Sufferer of Psalm 22. Ah, my brethren, I had found the blood of atonement at last. I trusted it, and how I love to read the New Testament and see how all the shadows of the law are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. His blood has been shed for sinners. It has satisfied God, and it is the only means of salvation for either Jew or Gentile.
Reader, have you yet found the blood of atonement? Are you trusting in God’s smitten Lamb?
—Taken from The Message of Victory, July-August, 1958, number.—EDITOR.