Life in the Sacrifices

When you think of the biblical sacrifices, what comes to your mind? In the simplest sense, I tend to think of an animal dying to appease God. You kill the animal, burn it, and God forgives your sin - isn't that the point of offerings? If you've been following along on my blog, then you know there's much more to understand from God's offertory system!

Last time, I wrote in detail about the role of death in the sacrifices. Jesus Christ's death is the death pictured by the sin offerings of the Old Covenant, and this is the most basic point of our understanding in our relationship with God: that Jesus had to die for our sins to be forgiven, so that we could be reconciled. But is the sacrificial system all about death?

Death in the Sacrifices

The history of Genesis 2-3 established firmly that death is the consequence and penalty of sin (Genesis 2:17 & 3:19). As the result of sin, the first human lives which God created would end - and, moreover, Adam and Eve had to be cast out of the presence of God, being banished from the Garden of Eden.

Having the entire bible before us and knowing much of the plan of God already, we may miss the gravity of this situation. If you were reading it for the first time, do you know how far you would have to read through the bible before God revealed that the FORGIVENESS of sins is possible or how it can take place? 

Why Study the Offerings? (Part 2)

In the first part ofthis introduction to God's offertory system, I briefly mentioned that the sacrifice of Jesus was much more than just an offering for sin. Meditating on this aspect of God's law reveals the depth of meaning that God has poured into the work that Jesus Christ accomplished on our behalf as well as the work that we ourselves do! Last time, I asked a question that I failed to address: is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ the entire substance of God's system of offerings as it relates to the New Covenant? 

For those in the Church of God, you may recognize that we use the word "offering" to refer to the money that we give on God's Holy Days. But have we considered the full biblical context of what an "offering" is in the New Covenant? A review of the New Testament scriptures about offerings reveals that the apostles deeply understood God's offertory system, and we will readily see that we cannot hope to grasp the apostles' meaning without studying that system for ourselves. 

Why Study the Offerings? (Part 1)

The first 7 chapters of the book of Leviticus describe the main types of offerings that God commanded for Israel under the Old Covenant. Many more chapters throughout the law provide additional instruction. Why did God direct Moses to spend so much time writing about them? Do they have significance for God's people in modern times?

If I were to ask whether there are still sacrifices in the New Covenant, hopefully you would answer yes - with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins being the chief example. But did God devote so many chapters in the law and put so much ceremony into the daily lives of Israel for hundreds of years just so that we, two thousand years later, could give mere passing acknowledgement to this fulfillment in Christ? Moreover, is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ the entire substance of God's system of offerings? I hope to not only persuade, but to convict you otherwise!

Some Jews Seek to Resume Sacrifices for Passover

According to this news story, there is growing support among certain Jewish sects to resume sacrifices at the Temple Mount. The Jews have not carried out sacrifices since the destruction of the temple in the year 70 AD. I've encountered various schools of thought among Jews as to whether or not sacrifices should be carried out. Some say that forgiveness of sins can be obtained without blood sacrifice - a claim that I personally see absolutely zero support for in the Bible. Others shy away from blood sacrifices because of certain technical matters in the law, claiming that they don't have the proper provisions for carrying out these blood sacrifices correctly. Others, such as Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the subject of the featured article, believe that the sacrifices should be carried out to the best of their ability, even if it's not perfect.

Having read the Old Testament thoroughly, I have to say that I would be an advocate of resuming the sacrifices as Rabbi Eliyahu proposes if I were a Jew. As it stands, I believe that those sacrifices are not necessary for our present time because this is what is taught in the book of Hebrews; however, the book of Ezekiel (chapter 40) clearly states that God is going to have His Temple rebuilt on earth during Christ's reign and that He is going to reinstitute animal sacrifies in the Temple. In light of that fact, God clearly has a purpose for those sacrifices, a topic which I have breached in the first post of a series on my other blog about the biblical concept of cleanliness.

There is also reason to believe that the Jews may resume sacrifices before the Tribulation. Notice Christ's warning about the end-times:

Matthew 24:15-22
"Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes... For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened."

Couple that with what Daniel said:

Daniel 12:11
And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days.

The original abomination of desolation involved stopping the daily sacrifice in the Temple and the defilement of the Temple by having unclean animals sacrificed to Zeus on the altar of God. Notice the period of time involved here, 1290 days, is the same length of time as the tribulation period, which is elsewhere said to be 3.5 years. Therefore, a reasonable interpretation of these scriptures is that sacrifices will again be established at the Temple and that these sacrifices will be cut off and the altar defiled by sacrifices to another god immediately prior to the Tribulation. On the other hand, there are other interpretations of these scriptures that reason that the prophecy in Matthew 24 refers to the New Testament analog of the Temple of God, which is the Church.

Either way, I personally find it encouraging that there are Jews who are passionate enough about the law of God to try to reinstate the sacrifices. Of course I wish that they would instead accept Christ and channel that passion to understanding His sacrifice for us, and I look forward to the time when their minds will be opened for exactly that purpose.