Allen Dvorak
04/14/09
Old Testament Judaism was a bloody religion. The Law of Moses commanded various types of animal sacrifices. For instance, if a person sinned, he would bring to the priest at the tabernacle or temple a young bull as a sin offering. He would lay his hand on the bull’s head and then kill the animal. The priest collected the blood from the dying animal and sprinkled it in various places, depending upon the type of sacrifice, thus presenting it before the Lord (see Leviticus 1-5). The blood represented the life of the animal (Leviticus 17:11); the presentation of the blood before the Lord was essentially the offering of the life of the animal on behalf of the sinner. The sacrifice was substitutionary in its nature. Instead of the sinner dying for his own sin, he offered the life of the animal in his place.
It is difficult to imagine how many animals died throughout the centuries during which the Jewish nation was under the Law of Moses. In addition to the regular daily sacrifices of the tabernacle/temple and the sacrifices brought by Israelites as described in the early chapters of Leviticus, there were special sacrifices such as those offered by Solomon on the occasion of the newly-finished temple. At that time, Solomon sacrificed 22,000 bulls and 120,000 sheep (1 Kings 8:62-63). Rivers of blood flowed over the years as men sought mercy (atonement) from God through these animal sacrifices and yet all this blood of bulls, sheep and goats could not take away the guilt of sin (Hebrews 10:4).
The inadequacy of animal sacrifices stems not from the fact that they are substitutionary in nature, but from the fact that animals are amoral creatures and thus do not have a sense of right and wrong. Man, however, is a moral being, meaning that he is capable of understanding right and wrong, capable of being responsible to a moral code. When man sins, he forfeits the morally perfect life which was his from birth. With the animal sacrifice, man offers to God another life in exchange for that which he forfeited by his sin. That animal life, however, is not equal in nature to his own. Even though the Law of Moses mandated that the animals to be sacrificed needed to be physically perfect, an animal is qualitatively different from man.
One of the wonderful themes of the book of Hebrews is that Jesus offered the perfect sacrifice for the sins of men. He lived as a man, suffering temptation as we do, and yet never forfeited His perfect life by sinning (Hebrews 4:15). In His death on the cross, He offered His life as an unblemished lamb (1 Peter 1:19) on our behalf, suffering the penalty which was due each sinner. With His own blood (representative of the life He gave) Jesus "obtained eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:11-15, 24-28). No wonder Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he preached Christ crucified – that perfect sacrifice is at the core of the gospel!