6) Sacrifice as Ritual

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(In this section I shall deal in detail with the specific Old Testament sacrifices. As this involves very long sections of scripture, I shall just give the references so that you can read the extensive details if you would like to.)

There was a regular pattern to the worship commanded by the Lord. This pattern covered certain times of the Jewish year. There were three major festivals at which many specific sacrifices were made. There were also other special important days such as the Day of Atonement. The three festivals are also significant for Christians since they mark three very important events in the purposes of God. These three festivals are described here:

‘Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me. ‘Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt. ‘No one is to appear before me empty-handed. ‘Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field. ‘Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field. ‘Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord. (Exodus 23:14-17)

The point about all the men appearing was not to deliberately exclude women; it was simply that women might be considered ceremonially ‘unclean’ for reasons they could do nothing about such as childbirth! The men had no excuse and had to ensure that they were ceremonially ‘clean’(see Leviticus 12:6-8).

The Feast of Unleavened bread (The Passover)

This took place in the first month of the Jewish year. For one week they were not allowed to use yeast to make their bread rise. It was to remind them of their deliverance from Egyptian slavery.

This feast is represented in the Christian calendar by Easter. It is a different date each year because the Jewish calendar is based on the cycle of the Moon which is different to our standard calendar year. The Passover recalls the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb. Easter recalls the sacrifice of Jesus as our Passover Lamb as we read here in the New Testament:

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch – as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:6-8)

Those who escaped from Egypt did not take yeast with them as they had to hurry away and using yeast to make bread rise takes too much time. Paul here uses this fact to explain that yeast can represent the corrupting effect of sin and that we are to turn away from all its manifestations.

The Feast of Weeks (or Feast of Harvest)

This feast was celebrated fifty days after the Passover, so it also was on a different day each year when calculated on our calendar. As it was calculated as 50 days it was also known as the Feast of Pentecost. As part of the agricultural calendar, it was also known as the Feast of Firstfruits. This was a time when produce which had been planted first began to bear fruit for harvest. The firstfruits of the harvest were always allocated to God and this meant that the harvest produced over the rest of the year would then be for the people. The Day of Pentecost was significant for Christians since it was the day when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the first believers. It was the beginning of the Church. These first Christians were the first fruits of the gospel message and the coming power of the Kingdom of God.

The feast of Tabernacles (or Feast of Ingathering)

This feast took place in autumn and was the main harvesting time in the agricultural year. It was a celebration during which they constructed booths or tabernacles for themselves to shelter in. The booths were temporary structures and reminded God’s people of the time they escaped from Egypt and spent years living in temporary booths until they arrived at the Promised Land. For the Christian, this feast represents the Second Coming of Christ to gather the final harvest of all believers alive or dead to ‘tabernacle’ with God forever.

worship

When it came to choosing animals for sacrifice, there were a number of important rules to follow. Only animals which were defined as ‘clean’ could be used. The Law of Moses allowed the eating of a broader range of animals as part of their diet (for instance, certain fish and wild animals were allowed to be eaten but they could not be used for sacrifice). The significance of this was that their sacrifices should be part of their personal wealth or property. Their sacrifice was to cost them something significant. However, the Law made concessions for poverty by allowing the poor to offer cheaper alternatives (see Leviticus 5:7). The Law stated that the animals chosen should be only the best, and that males were preferred to females. To bring home the truth that the first fruits belonged to God, a first-born child was to be redeemed by the sacrifice of a first-born animal.

Sacrifices were to be offered in a specified way and this involved three actions on the part of the person offering the sacrifice, and three actions on the part of the priest. These were:

Acts of the worshipper:

Providing the sacrifice and presenting it
Laying hands on the sacrifice as identifying with it
Slaughtering the sacrifice as the one needing the benefit of it

Acts of the priest:

Collecting and splashing the blood in the prescribed place
Burning the fat and the blood or the whole animal if a burnt offering
Allocating the remaining parts of the sacrifice to the correct use

offerings

There were five different offerings given for different purposes:

1) Burnt offering (Leviticus 1:1-17)

This is the basic sacrificial offering and was the primary sacrifice that provided atonement and dealt with the guilt of sin. A burnt offering was the one which historically people had offered before the Law of Moses enlarged on the types of sacrifices which were to be offered. It was seen as a way of giving the sacrifice completely to God since everything was burnt up. It was also viewed as creating a pleasing odour to God which would act as a propitiation, removing His anger over their wrongdoing; and encouraging God to bring His blessing upon them. You can understand how easy it was to think that all God required was a sacrifice and that He did not pay much attention to the state of the heart of the worshipper. This was the important lesson which the Law and the Prophets were to teach God’s people – the importance of obedience from the heart. The fact that this offering was burnt up suggests there was no part left over. However, the animal was first skinned and the skin was given to the priests to use.

2) Grain (cereal) offering (Leviticus 2:1-16)

The grain offering represented a consecration of God's gifts to all and the fruits of our work to God. This was the only offering which was not a blood offering. Furthermore, nothing could be in this offering if it included yeast. As in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, yeast is representative of sin, and this disqualified its use. However, the offering was to include olive oil which represents the Holy Spirit, and also incense which represents the prayers of God’s people (see Revelation 5:8). Finally, the offering was to include salt which represents the covenant relationship between God and His people. After the Lord’s portion was burnt, this offering could only be eaten by the priests.

3) Fellowship offering (Peace offering Leviticus 3:1-17)

This sacrifice was to thank God for reconciliation between people. Only certain parts of this sacrifice were to be burnt. The majority of the animal was partly given to the priests and the rest to the worshippers who were being reconciled; they would eat this as a fellowship meal. This shows the importance of God's people being of one mind and one heart.

4) Sin offering (Leviticus 4:1-35)

The sin offering dealt with the polluting effects of sin. This sacrificial blood was used to cleanse the Tabernacle or Temple of God and the people. There were different types of sin offering for different people according to their responsibility in the community. The value of the sacrifice for people like the priests or leaders was to be higher than that for ordinary people. However, when a sacrifice was made because the whole community of people had sinned, it was to be of the same value as that of the priests. All sins committed were to be seen as sins against God. For instance, the offering for someone cured of leprosy was a sin offering: it was as though the disease was representative of the sinful nature of humanity; therefore, its cure was also viewed as an offering for sin. Some parts of the sin offering were to be burnt, but if the offering was for the priest or the community as a whole, then the whole animal was to be burnt outside the camp and not on the altar. This showed that sin was to be removed completely from the people. However, sacrifices for individuals could be eaten by the priests. They could not be eaten by the worshippers since they represented their own sins. Jesus is spoken of as being made a sin offering on our behalf. Paul expressed it in this way:

God made this sinless man be a sin offering on our behalf, so that in union with him we might fully share in God’s righteousness.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 CJB)

5) Guilt offering (Leviticus 5:15 – 6:7)

As we saw, the sin offering was for sins against God. The guilt offering was for sins against one’s neighbour. This offering comprised money as well as an animal since money represented restitution after wrongdoing. Specified parts of the sacrifice were burnt and the remainder could be eaten by the priests but not the worshippers.

Free-will offerings

There were also instructions which allowed people to bring offerings in order to show love to God. These were not offerings related to sin or wrongdoing to others; they were not demanded; they were offerings of thanksgiving.

support

Finally, one other aspect of the sacrificial regulations was to support those who minister to God's people and the Temple, that is the priests and Levites. A substantial portion of the income for the priests came from the parts of the sacrifices that were given to them, the grain offerings, the breast and thigh of the fellowship offerings and the accompanying loaves, all the meat of sin and guilt offerings, the skin of burnt offerings, and possibly money equivalents for some guilt offerings. It was necessary since the tribe of Levi, from which the priestly class came, were allotted no land and so had no other means of income. They were dependent on the people's faithfulness in bringing sacrifices.

This has been a simplified summary of the Old Testament sacrifices. The exact details are quite complicated and lead to different interpretations and meanings. I have tried to draw out the main significant points from which we can discover spiritual principles. As was mentioned, it was possible to present these sacrifices without having a pure heart before God. It was also possible to make these sacrifices in a way that gave the impression to others of generosity to God, when actually the heart of the one making the offering was far from Him. In our final section we will deal in detail with these issues and the need for spiritual purity.