He will provide atonement

Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; a For He will avenge the blood of His servants, And render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people." – Deuteronomy 32v43

The problem with theological words is that they can be so ‘theological.’ We can do a couple of things with theological words. Sometimes we just ignore them because they scare us off. More often we just kind of ignore them because we have some kind of vague understanding of them so we just listen along and go on our way without really grasping it.

Atonement is one of those words. Most have heard it preached about it or have read it in our Bibles without really getting it. We could go into all the details of the word, but I was once taught a very easy way to remember what this word means. Atonement provides an ‘at-one-ment’ with God.

Sin drove a huge wedge between us and God. An insurmountable wedge that created a chasm so wide that being ‘at-one’ with Him was impossible. Once man became a sinner there was nothing he could do about. Unworthy to become ‘at-one’ with God man was dependent on God to provide the ‘at-one-ment’ with Him.

From the first few books of the Bible we may have thought that any chance of atonement would only be for His chosen people. Yet His plan was always much bigger then that.

In this verse He calls on the Gentiles to rejoice with His people for the atonement that is to come. Apart from the gospel of Christ we might be slightly mystified at what seems like a cryptic message.

We are blessed to see the full impact of this verse in the New Testament. The Gentiles, all of us who are not Jews, cold rejoice because when Christ provided the ‘at-one-ment’ on the cross all the barriers between Jew and Gentile we broken down. ‘His people’ would mean more than just the Jews, but all who would accept His atonement.

‘For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.’ – 1 Corinthians 12v12-23

The prophesied atonement, to which the Gentiles we called to rejoice, came to fulfilment is Christ! Indeed, what a great cause to rejoice!