When you don't know what you are looking at, it is easy to be confused. God's people in Old Testament times thought that in the physical tabernacle (and then temple), the sacrifices and priestly intercession, they were looking at God’s permanent arrangement for worship. They could never conceive of approaching God directly or that a mediator could possibly live perpetually in the presence of God's holy majesty. The law taught them that they were sinners and that priests had to offer sacrifices on their behalf.

This series of five statements encapsulate salvation, the reason Jesus Christ died. The inevitability of death faces us all. It is the result of the curse upon human rebellion in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:17-19).

It may seem strange to read this quote from Psalm 40:6-8, in which God said that He did not want sacrifices and offerings. Surely, that was the basis of the law, which God gave through Moses, and commanded them to observe.

The old covenant prescribed a busy routine for the priests. Having slaughtered and sacrificed one animal, the next sinner was waiting in the queue with yet another animal. Those people became regulars: confessing their sins and presenting their sacrifice to the blood-splattered priests. There was no end to the cycle of sin and sacrifice. So the priests could never stop their work, standing before the Lord.