“See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.” Zechariah 3:9
The people to whom Zechariah wrote would have been familiar with the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). On this day once a year the high priest entered the Holy of Hollies and made the necessary blood sacrifices for his sins and the sins of the people. However, the blood of animals was never enough to take away sins or remove guilt. Instead, the sacrifices became a reminder of sin (Hebrews 10:3).
The Day of Atonement foreshadowed Christ’s sacrificial death and the taking of his own blood into the presence of God as a priest on behalf of the people. Christ’s sacrifice was so complete and sufficient that it only needed to be made once. It would cover all the sin that had ever been committed and all the sin that ever would be committed. He so thoroughly dealt with sin that the whole sacrificial system became redundant. Five times the writer of Hebrews reinforces that Christ died “once for all” (Hebrews 7:27, 9:12, 9:26, 10:2 & 10:10). Furthermore, in 70 AD God allowed the temple to be destroyed so that it was no longer possible for sacrifices to be made.
Today people can boldly enter God’s presence, knowing their sin has been thoroughly dealt with and there’s no longer any ritual or religious work to perform to obtain forgiveness.
Zechariah’s prophecy: “I will remove the sin of this land in a single day” was fulfilled by Jesus at Calvary. God did indeed deal with our sin in a single day.
