Day by Day: “Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually.” Exodus 29:38. While reading Exodus 29 and the account of the daily offerings associated with the consecration of the priesthood, the phrase “day by day continually” caught my attention. I was reminded of Christ’s instruction to ask for daily bread and helped shape the passage as a picture of ongoing dependence upon what God supplies each day.
As we trace the progression of the consecration service in Exodus 29, a clear pattern emerges. From the opening of the day to its close, life before God is framed by the shedding of blood. Each morning and each evening a lamb is set forth, so that Israel begins the day and rests at night where atonement stands. Whatever takes place in between, obedience or failure, strength or weakness, the ground of their acceptance does not shift. It remains exactly where God has placed it: in the offering He Himself appointed. Hebrews 10:14.
This brings us to the heart of the passage. Israel did not need mercy only when it failed; it needed mercy simply to continue. Morning begins under blood. Evening closes under blood. Between them lies ordinary life, sustained, covered, accepted, because God has provided a continual offering. “Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually. The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even…this shall be a continual burnt offering… where I will meet you.” Exodus 29:38-42. It is upon this provision that God declares, “there I will meet with you… I will dwell among them and will be their God.” All of this helps us see that His dwelling with His people is not grounded in their consistency, devotion, or obedience, but in the sacrifice He Himself has appointed. Hebrews 10:19.
This pattern was not given to Israel as something to be admired from a distance, but as the setting in which life was actually to be lived. And the need it reveals has not passed away. We still live day by day, and we still stand only where God has placed our acceptance. Life before God has never been something we secure once and then maintain by our own efforts. From beginning to end, it is lived under mercy. Lamentations 3:22-23.
Though the sacrifice is now finished in Christ, the life it sustains is still lived one day at a time. We do not return because His work is incomplete, but because our life is found nowhere else. The repetition of sacrifice has ceased, but the dependence it revealed remains. The mercy that secured our standing is the same mercy that carries us through ordinary days, with all their mixture of weakness and strength. And this is why the language of “day by day” continues to speak so clearly. Life with God is not lived on reserve, drawing from yesterday’s strength or spiritual momentum. It is sustained moment by moment by what God has given in Christ. We begin the day where atonement stands, and we are kept there until its close.
What this leaves us with is not a task to perform, but a place to rest. Assurance is not found by measuring our days, but by looking where God has told us to look. From beginning to end, our life before Him stands upon Christ alone. It does not rest in how well we have begun the day, nor in how faithfully we have walked through it, nor in how we lay our head down at night. It rests where it has always rested, where God Himself has placed it. I Corinthians 3:11.
Day by day, we are upheld not by our consistency, but by His mercy; not by what we bring, but by what He has provided. And in that place, God still says, “there I will meet with you.” And so we do not come saying, “see what we have done,” but resting in the declaration that still governs everything: “I am the LORD thy God.” MPJ