The Everlasting Covenant - 9.7 Sanctuary & Sacrifices

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9.7 Sanctuary and Sacrifices

by Hubert F. Sturges, www.everlastingcovenant.com, March 2009

Topics:
How Did it Start?
Sacrifices by the Patriarchs
The Ceremonial Law
A Dispensation of Works
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How Did it Start?

The ceremonial law began as simple animal sacrifices which focused on a Sin Bearer to come. The Passover, instituted in Egypt on the eve of the Exodus, was the first important addition. The full spectrum of the ceremonial law was established when Israel camped at Sinai. Sacrifices were expanded to include not just sin offerings, but thank offerings, peace offerings, ........

The Sanctuary was built as the center for these activities and as the location for the physical presence of God. Priests were appointed. A number of rituals to promote cleanliness and holiness were detailed. And there was a schedule of yearly feasts and ceremonial Sabbaths.

All these activities were symbolic of a spiritual reality. They were given to illustrate the covenant, the gospel, the plan of salvation. Rightly understood, the same gospel preached by the apostles in the New Testament were illustrated by these symbols in the Old Testament. Both were a means of communicating grace to the people.

In the Garden of Eden, immediately after Adam sinned, God made coats of skins for Adam and Eve. Only by the death of an animal could they be covered (Genesis 3:21). While not called a sacrifice, this action was highly symbolic of the sacrificial system that God instituted.

The first formal sacrifice recorded is that of Cain and Abel. Able offered a lamb and this was accepted by God. This reinforced the special significance of the shedding of blood, for “without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). The sacrificed lamb pointed forward to the Messiah whose death on Calvary made it possible for sins to be forgiven.

   “And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.
   “And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
   “But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell” (Genesis 4:3-5)/

   “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh” (Hebrews 11:4).

The sacrifice of fruit by Cain was not accepted. Cain chose to go his own way. His sacrifice might have been of more value than a lamb, but it could not represent the substitutionary death of a Redeemer. All it could represent was an attempt to earn salvation by his own works. The record does not say, but how could they offer sacrifices if they were not instructed? By not obeying these instructions, Cain showed rebellion, which in a short time ripened into the murder of his brother, Abel.
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Sacrifices by the Patriarchs

After the flood, Noah offered sacrifices (Genesis 8:20) from among the surviving clean beasts. God was pleased, and gave the covenant of predictable seasons.  No more flood.  During the patriarchal age the record of making sacrifices is sparse and intermittent. Quite likely, sacrifices were offered much more frequently than the record shows.

Ten generations later we have the record of Abraham, the “friend of God” (James 2:23) who built a series of altars (1) for the worship of God. To Abraham was given the everlasting covenant in more detail. God promised “an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee” (Genesis 17:7). See article six on Abraham.

Abraham was tested several more times on his faith. Finally, in the supreme test, he was called to sacrifice “his only son Isaac” on Mr. Moriah (Genesis 22:2, 8, 12, 13). This story is an acted parable, giving a special insight into the reason for the sacrificial system. This showed that God will provide the sacrifice and that it is His only begotten Son that will be provided.

Many years later, the Passover ceremony emphasized that it is only through the blood of the sacrificial lamb (pointing forward to Jesus Christ) that lives were saved. On this last night in Egypt, they were to take a lamb for a sacrifice and sprinkle the blood on the posts and lintel of the door. With this sign the house and the first-born in the house were under the protection of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. In those houses not marked with the blood of the lamb, the firstborn died.

   “For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.
   “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:12, 13).

In spite of all these instructions, God is not interested in the sacrifice of animals unless it is a sign of a changed life and a willingness to obey Him (2).
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The Ceremonial Law

We don’t know how often people offered sacrifices before Sinai, but the ceremony of making sacrifices was well established at that time. The ceremonial law was given in detail at Sinai. When a sin was committed the sinner was required to make a sacrifice and the blood of the sacrifice carried into the sanctuary. This symbolically removed the sin from the sinner.

To break one of the ten commandments required forgiveness. Animal sacrifices could not atone for sin but they illustrated the Sin Bearer, Jesus Christ, through whose death sins were forgiven. It was only through a blood sacrifice that sins could be forgiven (Hebrews 9:22); through the symbolic sacrifice of an animal in the Old Testament time, pointing to the reality of Jesus’ sacrifice in the New Testament. When a person sinned, having to sacrifice an animal impressed on him the seriousness of sin, and taught obedience to the law.

The detailed instructions regulating the sacrifices, ceremonies, rituals, and feasts which pointed forward to the coming Messiah made up the ceremonial law. By its very nature this law was temporary. When Messiah came and the true sacrifice was made, the ceremonial law was fulfilled and was no longer in effect. At that time “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45), marking the end of sacrifices and oblations (Daniel 9:27).

The worship form for Israel was largely made up of these ceremonies. With constant repetition these ceremonies eventually became the focus of worship in the minds of many. It is ironic that the very means ordained to point forward in faith to the coming Redeemer, Jesus Christ, should replace in the minds of many people the purpose for which Jesus came.

It must be emphasized that the ceremonial law was not the covenant or even a part of the covenant. It was an illustration of the covenant and the plan of salvation. In the extensive literature describing the ceremonies and the sacrifices, no covenant language is used.  As the worship form, it was temporary and came to an end when the true sacrifice, Jesus Christ, died on Calvary (Colossians 2:14).

The ten commandment law was central to the covenant and the guide by which God would make of Israel “an holy nation” (Exodus 19:4-6; 20:2-17). All the words of Moses, making up the ceremonial law, were written in a book that was kept in the side of the ark. The Ten Commandment law on the two tables of stone was kept in the ark (3).

The New (“everlasting”) covenant was ratified by the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. The sacrifice of Christ on the cross gave power to the covenant promises, made the covenant effective (Hebrews 9:15) for every man and brought to an end the sacrifices and rituals (Daniel 9:27). His death ensured, ratified and made possible the fulfillment of the promises of God.
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A Dispensation of Works

The important issue here is to determine exactly what is the heart of the everlasting covenant, and what is peripheral or parallel to the covenant. Also what is the old covenant and what is the new covenant; what is just old and new, and what is first and second. The “old covenant” has been discussed some already. Other issues will be discussed in the articles on Hebrews.

Briefly, the Sinaitic (“old”) covenant was ratified by the sacrifice of animals in a brief ceremony described in Exodus 24:3-8. This ceremony was a “one-time occurrence” and had nothing to do with the ceremonial law.

The old covenant began with a self-sufficient response of the people to fulfill the terms of the law in their own strength (4), in which they miserably failed (Exodus 32). The old covenant re-appeared in Jewish history with a dependence on law-keeping and on the very rituals themselves as the means to salvation; without heart felt obedience, a change in the life, or of looking forward to the sacrifice of the Redeemer.

The basic problem with a “works religion” is that men are satisfied because they have “done something.” Ritual alone does not change the life. People would rather “do something” than to make changes in their thinking or their lives. To deny self and to submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ does not come naturally to the sinful human heart. It is only by a focus on the life and death of Jesus that the heart can be “melted” and His grace come in and change the life.

And was there evidence that these sacrifices pointed forward to the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on the cross? Genesis 3:15 gives a promise of a Redeemer, whose redemption would be at the cost of suffering to Himself. He would ultimately be victorious. The immediate issue with Adam and Eve was the fact of their facing death for their sin. This promise of redemption was to save them from death and to allow a time of probation for them to learn of the grace of God.

God takes no pleasure in sacrifices of animals (2). Their only value lay as they were symbolic of a changed life and as they pointed forward to a coming Redeemer.
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