October 14 | Hebrews 9:6; Numbers 28:3

Pam Mann
Oct 14, 2025
3 min read

DAILY READING

REFLECTION

Regular Routine

By Pam Mann

Our regular routines are what show who we really are. What we do day after day shows both what we value most and what is most necessary to our existence. All people eat, sleep, work, and play. In addition to what all people do, those who love God also have regular routines of worship. We pray regularly; we study the Scriptures regularly; we worship regularly; we meet with other believers regularly.

In Hebrews 9:6, we read of the regular routine of the Israelite priests as they worked in the holy place. Numbers 28:3 is about a daily burnt offering, an example of the many regular responsibilities of the priests and Levites. I confess that I’d never been enthralled with the details of these regular sacrifice routines. When I did read through the Bible in one year, I slacked off in Leviticus and Numbers passages where verse after verse described how to do routine sacrifices.

Then, when our family lived in west Africa and my husband, Dave, taught village catechists who were training to become pastors, I had a wake-up call to the richness of regular routine details. It was a

Bible class on Hebrews and the Old Testament scriptures, such as Leviticus on which it is based. The African students were thrilled with these Old Testament passages! They scrutinized every detail. What was so intriguing about these ancient rituals? The students explained that these were instructions like their fathers gave them on how to sacrifice to the ancestors. Their fathers didn’t know the gospel and sacrificed to their ancestor spirits, whom they believed controlled their health, their good fortune, their crops, their weather...you name it.

For these young Africans, whose cultural traditions were being restructured by the gospel, reading the details of various ancient Jewish sacrifices helped them to know how profoundly the Lord understands their roots. Just like the Jews, their people group had hooks for the gospel in their traditional culture. For all people, a sacrifice is needed.

For the Jews, the regular sacrifices would not suffice. They would need repeating. For the people groups of west Africa, the sacrifices to ancestors have not sufficed. The ancestor spirits were unreliable. The living would offer sacrifices to the dead ancestors and could have no confidence in their efficacy. The act of making insufficient sacrifices fuels a longing in people’s souls for the one sacrifice whose blood has the power to save completely, fully, and forever.

The regular routine rituals set the stage. They provide the backdrop of the long-awaited perfect Lamb of God. And, now for us, this once-and-for-all sacrifice inspires a new regular routine! No more sacrifices are needed, except the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to the Savior.

PRAYER

Thank you, Jesus, for being the perfect sacrifice for our sin. Thank you for the ways You prepare entire cultures for the good news. Thank you that our rescue is not in routine rituals but in You, the Rescuer of our souls. Amen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PAM MANN

I first joined UALC when my husband (then my fiancé) and I were college students involved in youth ministry. God has used UALC to nurture our family’s faith, even in our years outside the U.S. I’ve participated in UALC ministries with kids, art, prayer, exercise, ESL, and Bible teaching. I do all the fun church things.