I studied Exodus this summer, and not too long ago I had a thought come to me while reading about the establishment of the Levitical Priesthood…
And thou shalt cause a bullock to be brought before the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the bullock.
(Exodus 29:10)
The first sacrifice undertaken by the new priestly order of Israel was a sin offering, with a young bull (bullock) being the sacrifice. Aaron and his sons place their hands on the animal’s head, symbolically transferring their sins to the animal. Of course, an animal did nothing wrong, and that’s precisely one of the two major points you’re supposed to take away from this whole ceremony: The animal is innocent. The animal did nothing wrong and yet dies on behalf of the people. There is an ugliness to sin that must be kept at the forefront of our minds. If we lose that, then sin becomes easy, and damnation follows. Unfortunately, for Israel, the act of offering animals lost its intended meaning over the years. They watched countless innocent animals die because of their sins, but instead of being ashamed of it, their ritual offerings became hollow and heartless. It was just “the thing to do.” And once you take the emotional component out of the offering, the action loses all its purpose.
The second big takeaway from animal sacrifices is supposed to be: An animal is not a man. A man sinned, not a cow. A man sinned, not a lamb. There was an inherent inferiority to the sacrifices of Israel. There was a built-in insufficiency or inadequacy to their offerings. They were allowed and commanded by God, certainly. They were accepted by God, too, and yet, animal offerings were never meant to be the end-all/be-all of the people’s relationship with God. The blood of an animal cannot take away sin (Hebrews 10:4). The blood of a sinless man was required, which is fulfilled by the offering of Jesus (Isaiah 53). The offerings of the Old Testament were accepted by God “in promise.”
Earlier this month we had Ryan Manning speak to us on a Sunday night and he made a brilliantly simple analogy…
Old Testament offerings served the same function as writing a check: You give someone a relatively worthless piece of paper, but it is backed by the promise that you have the money in your bank account, so that when the person goes to cash the check, only then is the money taken from one account and put into the other. In the case of Israel, their animal offerings were akin to writing a check to God, paying for their sins, but the animals are worthless. The money that “backed up” the offerings was the blood of Jesus. The difference is: When I write a check, I’m promising someone else that I have the money to cover it. With Israel, they offered the animals, but THEY didn’t have the money (the blood of a perfect man) to cover it. God provided that for them in the form of Jesus, which is why our salvation is by Grace.
~Matthew
PS: Don’t forget that, at the end of September, we will enjoy our Family Day weekend Gospel Meeting with Barry Grider. Be here on Friday evening, September 26th, at 7pm, as well as Saturday evening, September 27th, at 7pm to hear two excellent lessons from God’s Word, both in the lead-up to our big Family Day Sunday on September 28th.