To My Friends, Colleagues, Church Fellowship, Curious People everywhere and especially my Grandchildren,
Always know that you are fully loved by God and you are loved by me. I pray that you remember our purpose is to reflect the entire Glory of God.
THE LAW OF SACRIFICE
As we leave behind the drama of the wilderness journey which became for Israel what they will forever call the Exodus, we move into a day of conquest and settlement. Before we dig into the presence of Christ in the future events of Joshua and Judges, I think it might be wise to have a conversation about the nature of the sacrifices Christ called for in the laws and ordinances of Leviticus and Numbers. We have talked about the reasons for offerings and tithes but we have not talked about the means of these sacrifices. In our modern culture that leaves at least me with an unfinished theological foundation.
Let me state my question simply. Why so much blood? Are these not the pagan practises of those who worship the very false gods that Christ is warning His people to avoid?
Israel has been immersed in an Egyptian and world culture that is filled with the worship of Baal and Astarte who were chief among a pantheon of gods in the world. The warrior like culture of the tribes descended from Ham, (shem-ham-japeth, sons of Noah) had filled the middle eastern region with the worship of these deities. Remember the story of the tower of Babel? This was a story connected to Ham and his descendants as they led the middle eastern world into the worship of many gods rather than the creator described to us at the beginning of the book of Genesis. From the beginning He named Himself as Elohim and Yahweh.
I gave you that short paragraph to say we have a competition going on for the hearts and minds of the Israelite nation in terms of what we have come to call "worldview". The world they had been living in since the middle of the book of Genesis, when Christ called Abraham to separate himself from the polytheistic worldview of the middle east, was to be replaced with a monotheistic worldview of the Creator God. (This was actually a return to the earliest beliefs in our creation narratives.) The "period" (end of sentence) was put on this clash of civilizations and worldview by 400 years of forced captivity in Egypt.
Let me ask my question in a different way at this point. Why would Christ set in place laws of sacrifice that mirrored the very practises of these ancient pagan worship practises? I can't believe I am the only one curious about this at a basic level.
All of these other religions were steeped in bloody sacrifices of both animals and people. It would have been more comfortable for me to believe that to set His people apart and show the world just how different they were, Christ would have charted a new course into the future. Instead, I find laws that begin centuries of practice where the Israelites are to bring animals to the priests to be slaughtered as a means of obedience, thanksgiving and atonement for sin.
Please don't misunderstand me, I am not calling this into question in regards to Christ's Holiness, I am just interested in the "why". Christ does nothing on accident or a whim and I can't believe this is the exception to that reality.
I have heard many explanations in my years of ministry and study about these early Israelite sacrificial practises. Most of these have centered around this biblical statement.
Leviticus 17:11
"the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar."
There is also, in this 17th chapter, an admission that they (the Israelites) have been sacrificing to the "goat god" min. The Israelites are told in Leviticus 17:7 to no longer offer these sacrifices to the "goat idols". They are instead, told to offer this sacrifice to Christ. Anyone's eyebrows going up yet?
In the explanations I have explored, the one that seems the most plausible goes back to the the killing of animals for the clothing of Adam and Eve. In this explanation Christ killed animals and used their skins to cover the nakedness or the sin of man's original rebellion. In this teaching, Christ is just bringing back the reality that the "life blood" of the animal is used because there is a real consequence of sin. Death is that consequence and rather than Adam and Eve dying, the animal died. Rather than the people of Israel dying, a perfect animal is used as a substitution of that death. Rather than you and I dying, Christ who is the perfect sacrifice died in our place. I think you get the general picture of this explanation and argument in relation to the blood sacrifice. Christ is simply calling the Israelites back to the original purpose of the sacrifice He Himself instituted after the sin of Adam and Eve. By the way, this explanation lays the foundation for the sacrifices that Cain and Abel are bringing to Christ in Genesis 4. This explanation leaves much to be discussed and debated, but it moves us in a biblical direction for understanding.
There will even be poems and songs throughout the Old Testament that will talk about the "blood" of the grape being it's juice.
Deuteronomy 32:14
"curds of milk from herd and flock and with fattened lambs and goats, with choice rams of Bashan and the finest kernels of wheat. You drank the foaming blood of the grape."
In other words, by the time we get to the New Testament, we have a language that will allow us to talk about Christ's blood in relation to the juice that comes from the grape as it surrenders it's life. All of these sacrifices, become an opportunity to talk about and point us towards the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ who will die in our place to free us from sin and spiritual death.
It is important to note, that if this is close to a valid explanation, Christ has corrected one very important aspect of the sacrifice. No where does Christ ever institute the sacrifice of people. Neither children or adults are fair game for the sacrifice. This is a purely pagan practice that will be instituted by the descendants of Ham and his barbaric worldview, but prohibited by Christ.
I still need to share an interesting observation that did not go unnoticed by me.
We do not seem to have any proof that the blood sacrifice lasts for more than a few hundred years. Certainly by the time of the rebuilding of the temple under Ezra we no longer hear or see evidence in scripture or in history that there are literal blood sacrifices going on in the temple. Christ does not even seem overly concerned by the absence of this practice that He Himself instituted about 1400 years before He came as God incarnate. It almost seems in scripture, that the movement through history of this practice, is designed to diminish until the ultimate sacrifice which can only be understood if we understand the original laws of sacrifice in Leviticus. I believe, there is absolutely no foundation to understand the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, if we do not study and attempt to understand the animal sacrifice in the tabernacle.
I also want to make an observation about the ability of people to understand things that are to far outside of their worldview. Christ uses that which the Israelites know to lead them in the way He wants them to go. Christ does the same thing with the first commandment. He does not tell the nation of Israel there are no other gods, He simply says they will have no other god before Him. (Exodus 20:2; Deuteronomy 5:6) I believe Christ knew that to challenge to entire worldview of the Israelites was more than this fledgling nation could withstand. They struggled to keep the commands Christ did place before them.
I think the blood sacrifice is a part of a sacrificial system that they could understand. Christ was claiming what they already knew and in truth what He Himself had instituted in more ancient days. To speak of atonement or forgiveness without the act of sacrifice was in many ways incomprehensible for Israel.
I hope these foundational, historical and theological ideas of the sacrifice leave room for conversation around a variety of ideas associated and attached to them. Feel free to reason and debate with me about any and all of my ideas.
Until next week!
Yol bolsum,
Tim
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