Sacrifices (burnt or fire offerings)

Secularists are certain that Judaism is like all religions of the ancient world: the byproduct of the superstitions of the time in which it began. That burnt offerings of lambs and bulls were its temple worship’s cornerstone practices is offered as one, if not the most major, point proving that. Moreover, that this in itself would expiate the wrath of God and atone for a sin is touted all the more as a sign that there is no God, else why would something of such shallow veneer cause him to forgive a person’s sin; and why would he simply ape the other religions in the world? 

     Evangelicals have even worked the crucifixion of Jesus into a complex scheme, in which they say the law of Moses required Christ’s death in order to either do away with sins once and for all or, strangely, that it saves the Gentiles but the Jews can and should still sacrifice. Such an attitude proffers the point that Jesus is eternally offering himself as the sacrifice in order to appease God in heaven.

   All would be shocked to find out that God had nothing to do with the sacrifices of animals. His prophets of old doused people with the truth of it, but it never took hold. Therefore most modern evangelicals don’t realize their mental illustrations and allegories have no foundation. Jesus most definitely did not come to fulfill some legalistic formality in the law.

   Let’s take the last attitude first in order to show where the modern mental minhag comes from. We must go to the book of Hebrews to what is undeniably the “stubble, hay and wood” contained in the book, to use Luther’s term for the book. Since the book was never accepted at Rome, it did not exert as great an influence on Catholic teaching. But after the Reformation, with its undisputed canonicity by the Calvinists, its verbose and excessive rambling has aided in the view of which we speak. Hebrews 7 -  

   For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God. And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest: (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:) By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.

       Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

   Chapter 9 really sets it in play:

  Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

There are more examples in Hebrews, but it is best to let the surfer read it on his/her own.

   Suffice it to say that Jesus’ sacrifice was not foreshadowed by the law or sacrifices of custom. Nor did he die because he wished to fulfill legalistic requirements of a God who sounds more like an American lawyer parsing technicalities than the true God.

   This can be asserted with twofold evidence.

1.1

The Passover was instituted before the law. It was not a sacrifice. The blood of the lamb was to be placed on the lintels of the posts of the house to signify these were the children of the promise (whether Jews or Gentiles). Each man was to eat of it. No priest came between God and man. The bread was unleavened. No doctrines of man bring you to God. God is not obligated by rituals and formalities. This was a sign and a memorial. God would pass over us and bring us out of bondage. Thousands of Gentiles saw the mighty works of God in Egypt, and on that fateful night no doubt marked their lintels with blood. It is certainly written that the nations came up by mixed multitude with the children of Israel. Passover was for all who saw it, even then while uncircumcised. 

1.2

When Moses spoke of “that prophet” who was to come, the law had not been given yet. God had only spoken by voice when the children were first assembled and Moses and the elders went forward. In his book of Job, Moses made it plain in chapter 19 that the Redeemer would come and stand upon the earth at the latter day, making it plain Moses saw no redemption in the law, nor that it was even a foreshadow of the way in which God would bring redemption.

2.1

The blood of bulls and goats never forgave a sin. God never spoke so clear on the subject as through Jeremiah. Jeremiah 7:

     The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these. For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

     Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD. But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim. Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee. 

     Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

     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. . .

Powerful words, correcting so many false attitudes today, both in Israel and amongst the nations. God’s snide can even be detected: 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 Jeremiah was not alone is relating God’s opinions about the shallowness of sacrifices and how useless their appearances were. Micah declared:

     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?

LXX Wherewithal shall I reach the LORD, and lay hold of my God most high? shall I reach him by whole-burnt-offerings, by calves of a year old? 7 Will the LORD accept thousands of rams, or ten thousands of fat goats? should I give my first-born for ungodliness, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 Has it not been told thee, O man, what is good? or what does the LORD require of thee, but to do justice, and love mercy, and be ready to walk with the LORD thy God?

Isaiah was just as strong:

LXX 10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodoma; attend to the law of God, thou people of Gomorrha. 11 Of what value to me is the abundance of your sacrifices? saith the LORD: I am full of whole-burnt-offerings of rams; and I delight not in the fat of lambs, and the blood of bulls and goats: 12 neither shall ye come with these to appear before me; for who has required these things at your hands? Ye shall no more tread my court. 13 Though ye bring fine flour, it is vain; incense is an abomination to me; I cannot bear your new moons, and your sabbaths, and the great day; 14 your fasting, and rest from work, your new moons also, and your feasts my soul hates: ye have become loathsome to me; I will no more pardon your sins. 15 When ye stretch forth your hands, I will turn away mine eyes from you: and though ye make many supplications, I will not hearken to you; for your hands are full of blood.

16 Wash you, be clean; remove your iniquities from your souls before mine eyes; cease from your iniquities; 17 learn to do well; diligently seek judgement, deliver him that is suffering wrong, plead for the orphan, and obtain justice for the widow. 18 And come, let us reason together, saith the LORD: and though your sins be as purple, I will make them white as snow; and though they be as scarlet, I will make them white as wool. 19 And if ye be willing, and hearken to me, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20 but if ye be not willing, nor hearken to me, a sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken this.

Masoretic Text

   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. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
 

David openly proclaimed in a 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.”

In Psalms 4 and 27, he speaks of sacrifices of joy and praise. In Psalm 50 how blunt does the LORD have to be?

   The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself.

   Selah.

     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.

Again, Psalm 51. Here is a man speaking with God’s own heart:

     Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
 

     Sacrifices therefore cannot be a foreshadowing of Christ’s purpose or mission. They are only appearances that can be offered without any heart behind them. Certainly that is not a foreshadowing of God’s motivation. It is true that in the days of the patriarchs (and even after) it was the custom to make covenants by the shedding of blood. God communicated with man on his level, as in the case of Abraham. But God did not command such slaughters, nor institute them for sins. It was the custom, both of contract and expiation. God does not use Swahili on an Englishman. It doesn’t work. He did not command a change in customs and the way in which contracts and business were consummated. He communicated accordingly.

     When these practices and customs became part of the law, priests came between God and man in their offering. But not in the Passover lamb, the true foreshadowing. Therefore there is no requirement of the law in view. God rose up his prophets early, he said, telling Israel where true penitence lay. But we would not hear.

   What God did, he planned to do long before the law, as was the Passover before the law. What he planned to do would be partaken of Israel, and not only of priests. It was to redeem from sin, not to redeem from the law which was not yet given. Nor was the Lord’s death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave to forgive sins.

Luke 7:

   And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to meat. And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.

As it said earlier in Luke 5: 

   And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him. And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?  But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?  But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to day.

   Before he went to the cross, her sins were forgiven. It is the object of her faith, the feet upon which she cried, the one before whom she had humility. Just as David fell to his face and in Psalm 51 prayed before God because of his grave sin in causing Uriah the Hittite to perish.

   Why are people confused? We do they think of legalities? Paul understood (Romans):

     Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
 

   By his death he broke our hearts, that we might see him as he is; see his love for his creation; understand what is his pure nature. And by the Resurrection we shall live in our bodies for eternity. That is how important God’s genius is. This creative wonder, this tabernacle in which dwells our souls, shall never perish. We shall rise from the dead. Not as ghosts and spirits. But we shall live as human beings again. But the most important thing is we shall live forever, knowing what God truly is like. We can never cry upon God’s feet as he is. Thus he came and walked amongst us as we are. He always had the power to forgive sins. He did not come to forgive, but to redeem, that he might raise our souls to life again, and restore our bodies after death. How could anyone understand what God really is had he done it any differently?

   With the Bible so omnipresent today, it is amazing how faith has not grown. The Scriptures are easily accessible to read time and time again: “For unto a child is born, unto us a son is given. The government will be upon his shoulders. He shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.  Of the expansion of his government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, to establish it and to sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever more. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will do this. . . .Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a tender plant, and like a root out of a dry ground; he had no form and he had no majesty that we should look at him, and had no attractiveness that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others, and a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering; and like one from whom people hide their faces, and we despised him, and we did not value him. Surely he has borne our sufferings, and carried our sorrows; yet we considered him stricken, and struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, and he was crushed for our iniquities, and the punishment that made us whole was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, each of us, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

   He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. From detention and judgment he was taken away— and who can even think about his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living, he was stricken for the transgression of my people. Then they made his grave with the wicked, and with rich people his tomb— although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

   Yet the LORD was willing to crush him, and he made him suffer. Although (Because he) made his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring, and he will prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will triumph in his hand. Out of the suffering of his soul he will see light, and find satisfaction. And through his knowledge his servant, the righteous one, will make many righteous, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore will I allot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong; because he poured out his life to death and was numbered with the transgressors; and he bore the sins of many, and made intercession for their transgressions.”

   The Law did not require this. His own soul did. He made his soul a sacrifice for sin.

     Why can’t Jews understand? Jews wrote this by God’s own spirit. It has nothing to do with guilt over carrying a key outside your door on the Sabbath day. The woman didn’t weep for not walking under an eruv with her own baby in her arms on the Sabbath. The sins that inspire weeping and kissing of his feet he forgave. Carrying a key, were it a sin, is a little thing to forgive, and it inspires little love in return. He did not institute such vain, self-obsessed observances. Nor does he forgive them. Why do people seek an eruv for that which is not sin? Why do they seek to create petty sins, and yet do not repent for self-righteousness?

   Faith opens up the world in which you see God. And this is the picture he has painted of himself: perfect love and sacrifice. Not by compulsion. Love does not come by command or compulsion. But willingly he suffered and tasted of death, that he might destroy what he hates: death itself; that he might also teach what is the greatest thing there is: God’s own nature. He requires, as always, that you believe that he has done this. 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.