Sacrifice & Offering . . .article 2

See Article 1

And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and brought forth Cain and said, I have gained a man through God. 2 And she again bore his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And it was so after some time that Cain brought of the fruits of the earth a sacrifice to the LORD. 4 And Abel also brought of the first born of his sheep and of his fatlings, and God looked upon Abel and his gifts, 5 but Cain and his sacrifices he regarded not, and Cain was exceedingly sorrowful and his countenance fell. 6 And the Lord GOD said to Cain, Why art thou become very sorrowful and why is thy countenance fallen? 7 Hast thou not sinned if thou hast brought it rightly, but not rightly divided it? be still, to thee shall be his submission, and thou shalt rule over him.

The very first instruction God gave man. Yet we are so consumed with our preconceived ideas about God’s relationship with us and vice versa that we completely overlook the significance of the whole encounter between God and Cain. God neither commanded sacrifice nor did he forbid it. It is merely recorded that they brought sacrifices. We thus can deduce that man had a need to bring something to God as an offering or for an expiation. Within the very fiber of mankind there was some need instilled that he had been separated from his creator and had to achieve some form of reunion. This insatiable need is deeply routed, and it is ingrained in man by God as a part of the curse of sin. Yet God did not say sacrifices and offerings constituted an amend between he and man.

That need has manifested itself in many ways. Humans, not animals seem to have a God consciousness. No creature can be found to have any sense of a higher being. Almost all ancient peoples sacrificed, holding over from the same original ancestors we share the outward expression of attempting to expiate or appease. With time and ignorance man directed his sacrifices at idols. But even our fathers sacrificed toward God.

Yet sacrifice and offering was never commanded. There is found no order or even inference in Genesis. Man, as in Cain and Abel, merely began to do it. In their innocent way they perhaps thought they were appeasing God. Perhaps that desire to expiate compelled them to offer, believing they were meriting God’s favour.

But there is no command. And when Cain flubbed it, God didn’t just shrug and say it doesn’t matter anyway. He instructed Cain very graciously to do his offering with a right heart, to rightly divide it and offer of the best if he was to offer at all.

This is incredibly deep. Such a key element in God’s nature is revealed in this. Why did he not say, “It doesn’t matter. Blood and dead animals means nothing to me. I don’t eat grain. You’re just wasting food. Smoke of burning cattle stinks as much to me as you.”?

God did not. If what was done was done in sincerity, he would look upon the heart of him that offered. The gift was really immaterial. If you gave something second rate because you didn’t care for it, why give it at all? If you loved God, and feel the need to give, show by a sincere gift.

God has held that attitude from the beginning. But man seemed to have forgotten it.

Cutting up an animal or sprinkling blood became the custom to bind contracts. The shedding of blood was its key element to note the seriousness and gravity of a deal. God communicated with man accordingly. This can be seen in the covenant with Abraham. The term “cut a deal” seems to come from the practice of dividing an animal. In Hebrew texts (including biblical) to make a covenant is actually written “cutting a covenant.” Remember that when “cutting a deal” with someone today! In the ancient days they didn’t have paper to the extent we do, so deals were recorded on clay tablets or by a sacrifice and dividing of the animal before a large number of witnesses who could faithfully recall it was made and therefore keep it binding. Legalities, legalities. Today we record it on paper or a handshake before witnesses. One thing a judge reminds everybody-- you don’t have to be an attorney to draw up a contract. The courts will enforce the contract according to its declaration and according to “good faith.”

But God never commanded sacrifice and offering. He cut a covenant according to the concepts the ancients could understand. Ancient Jews (and many peoples) could not distinguish between religious law and civil law. Sacrifices, especially in Judaism, took on the tenor of a fine and purge. When that happened, God behaved in the same way he instructed Cain. He accepted the sacrifice and offering because he accepted the broken and contrite heart that was repenting. An arrogant heart going through the same motions was not accepted. His voice did not lash out at the temple and tell them that because he had already made that clear.

The priests could not tell if a person had a sincere heart. But the sacrifices served a legal function. The crime (sin) was expiated and the law could not touch the person. Legalities had been served. Sacrifices grew in number and detail for specific sins. Within all this developing legality, God was lost. The purpose of the law became the force by which sin was expiated and man was made right with God. The sacrifices were even declared in the name of the LORD.

Why didn’t God’s voice boom out and say stop? He maintained his same standard: “seek and ye will find.” He made it plain at the beginning to Cain. It is not the sacrifice, but the heart. And as with Cain he raised up his prophets declaring immediately that the sacrifice of animals and ritualistic offerings in and of themselves do nothing.

David declared it:

Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings, to have been continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

Indeed he did not reprove us for making sacrifices. He let us do it. But he made it clear where he stands.

David declared it again in his great messianic prophecy:

“O LORD my God, thou hast multiplied thy wonderful works, and in thy thoughts there is none who shall be likened unto thee: I declare and spoke: they exceeded number. Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body thou hast prepared me. Whole burnt offerings and sacrifice for sin thou didst not require. Then said I, Behold, I come: in the volume of the book it is written concerning me— I desire to do thy will, O my God, and thy law in the midst of mine heart. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation; lo! I will not refrain my lips; O LORD, thou knowest my righteouesness. I have not hid thy truth within my heart, and I have declared thy salvation; I have not hid thy mercy and thy truth from the great congregation.”

Micah declared it:

Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Jeremiah declared it in undeniable language:

Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers. Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee. . .

Isaiah also:

 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.

Yes, even now that prophets are being raised up again after so long, God has not changed. John the prophet:

Thus saith the LORD; They that counsel in blood cannot be found, and he that seeketh them knoweth me not. Blood I abhor. How my soul loatheth death, and my heart the soul, the thought of him who intimateth death. The pit beheld me; at the day of its forming it dreaded my coming. No place was found for it in the earth, in the day of its begetting. Corruption was afraid of me; for my abhorrence of death it would not draw nigh. As God liveth, so do they who call upon my name live forever. What hath cattle death to do with me, and where can its place be found in my abode?

Why would God not reprove us for sacrifices? What if he did? What would change? Our hearts needed instruction, not our rituals. It is the insincerity of the act that he instructed against from the beginning. So what would happen if we stopped sacrificing? We would find other ways to be insincere. It is this insincerity which had to be addressed and corrected. Until man could figure this out, the laws of sacrifice and offering continued as civil atonement, fines and purges. But God had nothing to do with the show of it all. From the very beginning he addressed the real issue: the state of the heart not the minutae of appearances.

By not ordering the removal of sacrifices God would make it plain what we are and what he was by comparison. When he came to walk amongst us, the state of our heart, sacrifices or no, was made evident. One seemingly insignificant life called out to be right in the heart before God. Yet we did not listen. We did not hearken unto “that prophet” who would speak everything from God’s heart. Destruction came. The removal of all those civil penalties, all the blood and the animals. All gone, for none could be offered except on Moriah. We were driven from Israel and scattered. The sacrifices had to stop, of course.

The nations heard, however, just as it was prophesied. They heard the state of God’s heart and believed that he--Jesus-- came and taught clearly and died by the hands of injustice-- intentionally and preordained that God might reveal himself. They hearkened unto “that prophet.” God made himself clear by this act. No more could one enforce God’s laws with insincere motives, nor keep his ways out of show and sham. No more would some goat or bull look significant. The way was made clear. This is God’s nature. This is the lifestyle he declares. So they hearkened and they believed. Isaiah 49:

   Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me; And said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Prince of God, in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my God. And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength.

And he said, It is too small a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.  Thus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.

 The salvation of God was made manifest because he made manifest by his own mouth and heart that one must have a right heart behind good and decent behavior to all mankind-- and always sincerity and love before God. This would purge sin. This was so great a sacrifice on his part that no gezeirah or tradition could obscure it. Man might corrupt it. But no more could man ever declare that such and such rituals and rules would purge one’s soul before God.

God made himself more clear by this act than by a booming voice stopping rituals. How grave to reject that he did this. This is to deny God’s purpose of creation: to reveal himself and teach mankind of the divine nature.

By comparison our hearts grew hard. We were kept from sacrifice, you see. God in his way finally wiped them out by scattering us. But our heart was not changed. We were merely kept from sacrifices and offering on Moriah. The same thing would have happened had he just forbidden them before. We would have stopped and the heart would be cold and petty and ritualistic. What good in that? The act of self sacrifice on his part, however, says it all, and it breaks the heart.

It is gross to recall that there are Hebrews who engage in bizarre sacrifices, and Gentile Christians who look forward to sacrifices on Moriah when the temple is rebuilt. Some also maintain that Jews were saved by sacrifices (extraordinary!) but that Gentiles are saved by faith (remarkable!).

Then are you not saying that there is error in the bible, for certainly sacrifices are often declared to be from the LORD’s own instruction?  I know for the Gentiles there is an unusual bible worship. To hear that kohenim adjusted things in the name of the LORD seems to unsettle them, even though Christ said as much about divorce laws. They seem unsettled because the bible is an idol and they cannot determine right and wrong except by “thou shalt and thou shalt not.” But the scripture does in its entirety declare the way of God, and as the apostles taught it is good for reproof and training in righteousness. That is why no prophet-- Micah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Elijah or Nathan, even David who was king and had power-- ever ordered the sacrifices to cease and the Torah to be expurgated of such things. To do so would rob us of yet another infallible example of God’s nature, the same that he made plain to Cain. Do it rightly. Man had the inner need to expiate and offer to God. Therefore do it with a right heart. But essentially it amounts to ‘when the day comes you understand these mean nothing and you get away from them, don’t go back to them again.’ They meant nothing. They symbolized nothing.

The prophets faithfully declared plainly that sacrifices were not of God and that they did not make a man right before God. They were civil laws. They had a purpose in fining violators and keeping sin at bay (I’m sure some of the cattle cost quite a lot). Public humiliation also kept violators at bay. This was all right. Ancient man comprehended this, and God understood. It was when man began to think that these practices and rituals purged the soul before God that the purpose of the Torah was lost.

So is there error? Well, not error. At one point priests adjusted and made rules in the name of the LORD that he did not give. But God made it plain about a right heart to Cain. No one can really circumvent God, even by rules and ritual. It is hard to put error in in the name of the LORD. They put in superfluity. God judges an individual by his own acts and heart . . not by the greater corporation.

The purpose of the Torah was given in Deuteronomy 6.

   6:1 And these are the commands, and the ordinances, and the judgments, as many as the LORD our God gave commandment to teach you to do so in the land on which ye enter to inherit it. 2 That ye may fear the LORD your God, keep ye all his ordinances, and his commandments, which I command thee to-day, thou, and thy sons, and thy sons’ sons, all the days of thy life, that ye may live many days.

3 Hear, therefore, O Israel, and observe to do them, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may be greatly multiplied, as the LORD God of thy fathers said that he would give thee a land flowing with milk and honey: and these are the ordinances, and the judgments, which the LORD commanded the children of Israel in the wilderness, when they had gone forth from the land of Egypt. 4 Hear, O Israel, The LORD our God is one LORD. 5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and all thy strength. 6 And these words, all that I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart and in thy soul. 7 And thou shalt teach them to thy children, and thou shalt speak of them sitting in the house, and walking by the way, and lying down, and rising up. 8 And thou shalt fasten them for a sign upon thy hand, and it shall be immoveable before thine eyes. 9 And ye shall write them on the lintels of your houses and of your gates.

10 And it shall come to pass when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware to thy fathers, to Abraam, and to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and beautiful cities which thou didst not build, 11 houses full of all good things which thou didst not fill, wells dug in the rock which thou didst not dig, vineyards and oliveyards which thou didst not plant, then having eaten and been filled, 12 beware lest thou forget the LORD thy God that brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 13 Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and him only shalt thou serve; and thou shalt cleave to him, and by his name thou shalt swear.

14 Go ye not after other gods of the gods of the nations round about you; 15 for the LORD thy God in the midst of thee is a jealous God, lest the LORD thy God be very angry with thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.

16 Thou shalt not tempt the LORD thy God, as ye tempted him in the temptation. 17 Thou shalt by all means keep the commands of the LORD thy God, the testimonies, and the ordinances, which he commanded thee. 18 And thou shalt do that which is pleasing and good before the LORD thy God, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and inherit the good land, which the LORD sware to your fathers, 19 to chase all thine enemies from before thy face, as the LORD said.

20 And it shall come to pass when thy son shall ask thee at a future time, saying, What are the testimonies, and the ordinances, and the judgments, which the LORD our God has commanded us? 21 Then shalt thou say to thy son, We were slaves to Pharao in the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought us forth thence with a mighty hand, and with a high arm. 22 And the LORD wrought signs and great and grievous wonders in Egypt, on Pharao and on his house before us. 23 And he brought us out thence to give us this land, which he sware to give to our fathers. 24 And the LORD charged us to observe all these ordinances; to fear the LORD our God, that it may be well with us for ever, that we may live, as even to-day. 25 And there shall be mercy to us, if we take heed to keep all these commands before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.

There is nothing mentioned about the resurrection. Nothing about meriting God’s forgiveness and salvation. Everything has to do with maintaining a safe society in the land, mercy and peace upon us as we traverse this life and as we learn of God. What a pleasant heaven on earth he intended for us! But even here it was stressed first: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and all thy strength. 6 And these words, all that I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart and in thy soul.

The Gentiles have built up a strange rigamarole about how if some “Old Testament” Jew could keep the Torah perfectly they could inherit the resurrection. It is just that no man can keep God’s standard so that is why Christ had to come to purge sin by a meaningful sacrifice (Christ) once and for all. The purpose is to blot out the ordinances against us. Blood, once again, is being offered as a means for staving the wrath of God because we cannot keep the law perfectly. If only we could! What a bloody joke!

No where is salvation mentioned as in the law. It is made plain above that the purpose is not salvation. Yes, the right way is in the Torah-- to love God and your fellow man; but the keeping of customs and moral laws is not designed for the purpose of achieving salvation nor does the Torah say that this is the purpose.

Since sacrifice had nothing to do with God, it is not a foreshadow of Christ. Since salvation was never obtained through the law, it could not condemn one before God. God is not a nitpicky lawyer. The purpose of coming and walking among us was not motivated by legal necessities. Why did God do it? To free us from the law? No, the law cannot enslave us. Our own stupid selfish and ignorant nature enslaves us and we used the law as an accomplice. As mentioned before, he showed his nature plainly. This cannot be hidden or obscured. We corrupted the law. We wouldn’t listen to his prophets. Instead of a booming voice instituting fear, he walked among us to show us how to live.

Faith holds one on a true course. It is the product of sincerity. A fearful and insincere heart means nothing to God. A booming voice causing panic as at Horeb would do nothing to the heart. We would soon take him for granted no doubt unless he punished incessantly, which he doesn’t care to do. We would do our own thing until he had to destroy us. Not the reason for his creation, I think. Therefore he has been subtle though clear. Therefore faith. Be tempered with it and believe. “He will not be ashamed that waiteth for me, saith the LORD.” The stopping of sacrifices by destruction has done no good for our people. The heart remains hard. It is the breaking of the heart through God’s personal sacrifice that can and will change. No more sacrifices and vain oblations.

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

He has indeed shown us what sacrifice means. You can embrace Christ with the equal lack of sincerity that man can embrace the sacrifice of animals. But if you do you full well reject the revelation of God. No ritual made God’s nature so clear as his own holy spirit creating for himself a tabernacle and walking among us to teach us to our faces. Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD. And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee. And the LORD shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.

I desire to do thy will, O my God, and thy law in the midst of mine heart. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation; lo! I will not refrain my lips; O LORD, thou knowest my righteouesness. I have not hid thy truth within my heart, and I have declared thy salvation; I have not hid thy mercy and thy truth from the great congregation.”