Jewish Discovery of a Lifetime

I Am a Jew

And I know how you will observe the Passover. You will put away all leaven from your houses; you will eat matzoth and roasted lamb. You will attend the synagogue, and carry out the Talmudic ritual. You will do everything but what Jehovah required first of all.

Jehovah did not say,

“When I see the leaven
put away, or when I see you eat the matzoth,
or the lamb, or when I see you go to the syna-
gogue…”

He said,

“When I see_the blood, I will pass over you” (Exodus 12:13).

Brethren, you can substitute nothing for the blood. You must have the blood! Blood is an awful word for one who reveres the ancient writings and yet has no sacrifice.

Turn anywhere in the Book, and the blood meets you. But you cannot find it in the Judaism of today.

As a Child in Palestine

I read the Law, Psalms, and Prophets. I attended synagogue and learned Hebrew from the rabbi. I believed that ours was the true religion. But as I studied the Law, I was struck by the place the blood had in all the ceremonies outlined there. I was equally struck by its utter absence in the Jewish ritual.

The Day of Atonement and the importance of the blood burdened me as I read Exodus 12 and Leviticus 16-17. One verse kept echoing in my ears:

“It is the blood that makes atonement for the soul!” (Leviticus 17:11).

I knew I had broken the Law and needed to make atonement. Every year, on the Day of Atonement, I beat my breast as I confessed my need, but atonement required blood, and there was no blood!

A Learned Rabbi

A learned rabbi told me God was angry with His people. The temple was destroyed and a Muslim mosque stands in its place.

The only spot on earth where we dare shed the blood of sacrifice according to Leviticus 17 has been desecrated. That is why there is no blood. God closed the way to the solemn service of the great Day of Atonement.

Now, we must rest on the instructions in the Talmud and the mercy of God.

I was not satisfied. I knew the Law remained unchanged, even though the temple was destroyed. Nothing but the blood could atone for sin.

But since we could not shed blood for atonement, we were left with no atonement at all!

This thought horrified me. I consulted other rabbis, asking only one question: “Where can I find the blood of atonement?”

I searched for many years in many places. One night in a narrow street in Constantinople, a sign invited me to a meeting for Jews.

As I entered, I heard a man saying,

“The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

I listened breathlessly as the speaker told how God declared that

“without shedding of blood there is no remis-
sion” (Hebrews 9:22),

that God had given His Son—the Lamb of God—to die, and that all who trusted in His blood were forgiven all their sins.

This was the Messiah of Isaiah 53 and the Sufferer of Psalm 22.

My Jewish Brethren

I had finally found the blood of atonement! Now I love to read the New Testament to see how all the shadows of the Law are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. His blood was shed for sinners. It satisfied God, and is the only means of salvation for Jew and Gentile (John 1:29).

Won’t you too trust in the blood of God’s Lamb?