Living with Mystery1) The Principles of Sacrifice
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Humans are instinctive worshippers. In the ancient world, sacrifice was an integral part of worship whether or not it was heathen worship or the prescribed worship of the bible. For instance, here is the response of the Philistines on capturing Samson:
Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, ‘Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.’ (Judges 16:23)
In another incident, when the Ark had been captured by the Philistines, they had experienced what was probably an outbreak of bubonic plague. They put this tragedy down to the presence of the Ark and asked their priests what to do. This was the reply:
They answered, ‘If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it back to him without a gift; by all means send a guilt offering to him. (1 Samuel 6:3)
This was a specific kind of sacrifice – the guilt offering. We shall see that guilt offerings were one of the offerings specified for Israel to make.
However, there was also evil practised in heathen sacrifice and of a type which was to be forbidden by the Lord. Here is an example:
When the king of Moab saw that the battle had gone against him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through to the king of Edom, but they failed. Then he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall. (2 Kings 3:26-27)
It is possible that there was some syncretism in Israel’s understanding of sacrifices. Syncretism is the way beliefs held outside of a religion become incorporated into the belief systems of that religion.
faith
Beginning in Genesis, there are many examples of sacrifice occurring before the Lord gave specific commands for sacrificial worship to Moses. A famous example were the offerings of Cain and Abel as recorded here:
In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel also brought an offering – fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favour on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favour. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. (Genesis 4:3-5)
There is no suggestion that these were offerings for sin, that is, they were not expiations. Expiations are sacrifices which are made in order to remove something; the Philistine offering mentioned above was an attempt to remove guilt. However, Cain’s offering was judged to be inferior. Hebrews says this about it:
By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. (Hebrews 11:4)
This introduces our first important principle: sacrifices must be offered in faith; a sacrifice of itself does not provide an automatic entrance into favour with God.
If we move on in Genesis to the story of Noah, we learn more about sacrifice. After the Flood waters abated, this happened:
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. (Genesis 8:20-21)
Noah built an altar and so sacrifice became connected with the specific religious practice of using an altar – sacrifices were not just made anywhere. But these sacrifices also had another purpose shown by the resulting reaction of the Lord: “The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma”. This is called propitiation and is different from expiation. Expiation is the removal of a thing such as guilt over an action or a sin committed. Propitiation relates to a person. Propitiation means to appease someone by removing their anger which had come from being offended. Propitiation is another principle of sacrifice.
revelation
As well as animal sacrifices there were also sacrifices involving meals where reconciliation between people happened. Abram (later to have his name changed to Abraham) undertook a rescue mission and recovered his captured nephew Lot and all Lot’s possessions. On their return this happened:
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.’ Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. (Genesis 14:18-20)
Abram was met by the mysterious ruler of Jerusalem who was also a priest. So we see that sacrifices will involve priests who will bring the blessing from God to those who make sacrifices. They shared a meal of bread and wine together and at this meal, Abram gave the priest a tithe or tenth of all the spoils of that battle. Here we first see the tithe which was to form a significant part of the sacrificial worship to the Lord. This highlights another principle: sacrifices must cost the worshipper something.
The most intriguing of sacrifices came later in the life of Abraham. God chose to test Abraham in the most dramatic of ways when God said to him:
‘Take your son, your only son, whom you love – Isaac – and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain that I will show you.’ (Genesis 22:2)
Abraham is seemingly being asked to offer a human sacrifice. Now this has led some people either to discount the story because the bible forbids human sacrifice; or to imply that God is in some way immoral to ask such a thing. However, historical context is important here. Abraham was born in a place called, Ur, where religious rituals included human sacrifice. There are excavations from Ur which demonstrate this and one pit there had over seventy human sacrifices elaborately arrayed. The people of Abraham’s day would not have thought there was anything immoral about human sacrifice. In fact, they would have considered it a truly religious act of great piety. Jean E Jones has said this:
“Abraham would not have thought that God’s request to sacrifice Isaac was morally wrong; it is more likely he considered it normal. Still, he believed God’s promises about Isaac and told his servants that he and Isaac would return together after the sacrifice … Hebrews 11:19 says he considered that God would raise Isaac from the dead.”
This is an example of progressive revelation in the Old Testament wherein God takes people from their present understanding to a better one. In sending an angel to dramatically intervene to stop the sacrifice of Isaac, God was revealing His abhorrence of the practice of human sacrifice.
obedience
This test for Abraham again reinforces the truth that sacrifice only has value when it proceeds from faith and obedience. In this case Abraham believed God’s word that Isaac would be the father of many people. There is also another important principle of sacrifice revealed here. When Abraham had proved to God his obedient love and faith, God provided a sacrifice instead. This is what happened:
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. (Genesis 22:13)
This illustrates the principle that sacrifice can be substitutionary. This is a very important part of the sacrificial rituals. The place of the person was taken by another, in this case a ram. The importance of this principle will become very clear as we develop the theme.
God re-educates His people into the ways of His holiness. This will be seen when we look at the sacrifices prescribed through Moses. The people of Israel were used to the types of sacrifice made by the Egyptians when they were captives there. They would come to see clearly that the rules for offerings revealed through Moses were very different from the ones they knew in Egypt or subsequently came across anywhere else for that matter!