There is a reason why the Holy Spirit placed the Day of Atonement, the observance having to do with the committing of sins by God's people, as number six in the series of seven feasts. A person must receive Christ and then walk with Christ for a season before God is able to destroy the many bondages of sin and rebellion—to root out the tares from among the wheat, so to speak.

Christians do sin. Two facts seem evident:

The cleansing of the Tabernacle and of the priests and people occurs toward the end of the series of seven feasts, coming just before the observance of the feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus, Chapter 16).

The longer the fervent disciple walks with Christ the more conscious he becomes of the problem of sin in his own life, showing that righteousness, holiness, and obedience of behavior are not achieved at the time of our first acceptance of Christ. An increasing consciousness of sin and in some cases an increasing ability to overcome sin have been the testimony of the sincere disciples of Christ throughout church history.

When a Christian sins the wickedness may not be of the gross, obvious nature of drunken brawling, robbery or selling drugs. The wickedness may be of a more deceitful quality. The sinfulness of the house of God tends to be that of the heart, the murderous hardness, jealousy, stubbornness, pride, spitefulness of the heart.

Such is the heart-sin of Israel, the murderer of God's prophets and witnesses from ancient times. Whenever Israel sees her Beloved she is apt to cry, Away with Him! Crucify Him! Let the guilt of His murder fall on us and our children!

Perhaps we shouldn't blame the Pharisees too much for the murder of Jesus Christ. It is possible that the leaders of the churches of today would resist Christ were He to appear. We might find fault with His words or deeds or have Him discredited in some manner or put out of the church while we are singing "Have Thine Own Way, Lord."

If someone thinks we are being too harsh, please refer to the manner in which some of the churches greeted the early proponents of the gift of tongues—a gift that was restored to the Body of Christ only after prolonged intercession had been made by burdened saints.

"It is the devil," some proclaimed, knowing nothing of what they affirmed, having no consciousness of the fact that they were attributing to the devil the gift of Christ, caring little for the fact that they willingly were relegating to Satan their brothers and sisters in the Lord. It was confusion.

Jeremiah may be as current as the morning paper when he warns, "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars" (Jeremiah 17:1).

To be continued.