If you have not read part I of this blog be sure to look it up as this article is a continuation of the sacrifices of the Old Testament and how they were realized in Christ Jesus.
Jumping ahead in the history of Israel, we come to a difficult time for God’s chosen people. Just as God had promised, a great nation came from Isaac. Historians estimate that about two million Jews were living in captivity in Egypt at the beginning of the records of Exodus. The Bible says that his people were crying out because they were being brutally treated by the nation of Egypt. God had raised up a deliverer to bring his people out of the worldly, sinful Egyptian nation. Of course, that deliverer was Moses, the most well known Jew to have ever lived. God had been training Moses for eighty years, forty years under the tutelage of Pharaoh, and forty years learning to lead people in the desert as a shepherd. God brought Moses to Egypt and sent nine plagues as direct attack on the false gods of the Egyptians. The tenth and final plague was a direct attack on the ultimate Egyptian god, the pharaoh. God had said that he would send his “destroyer” or death angel to kill the firstborn of every man and creature in the entire nation. There was one, and only one, way to escape the judgment of God. In Exodus 12, God commands every family in Israel to take a lamb and kill it in the evening. God commanded that the “lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year” (Exodus 12:5). This lamb was to be killed as a sacrifice in the evening, and the blood of the lamb was to be applied to the doorposts and the upper post of the doorway. I can just imagine the stench and bloody nature of this sacrifice; thousands of little innocent lambs being killed at the same time. The Jewish doorways must have been a sight as bright red blood dripped down the sides of the door and eventually caked in the Egyptian desert air. The Jews were commanded to go into their house, cook the lamb, and eat it as a feast. They then were to be prepared to go to Egypt that next morning because God would wreak havoc on the wicked Egyptians. In verse 14 of Exodus 12, God says that he would pass through the land of Egypt that night and would kill the firstborn of all who had not the blood applied to their house. He would “execute judgment” unless he saw the blood. If he saw the blood he would pass over that house, and judgment would not be executed on them. This event was so important that God commanded the nation of Israel to keep this as a Passover Feast every year to remember the judgment and deliverance of God. The atoning work of God in this account is seen in the wonderful realization that it was the blood that caused God to pass-over a house. It was not the good people in the house that determined God’s judgment or not. It was not the strength of the faith of the people that caused God to deliver them. If someone put the blood on the doorpost and worried all night whether it would work or not, they would be just as safe as someone who put the blood on the doorpost and slept like a rock. The judgment of God had nothing to do with the people’s worthiness, but it had everything to do with the blood of the innocent, perfect lamb that was sacrificed. In order for the people to escape the holy judgment of God, blood had to be spilled and applied to each individual house. It was the shedding and application of the blood of the innocent that saved the individual person. This third sacrifice has deep meaning that we will look at a little later.
The fourth sacrifice is found in the sacrificial laws that God gave to the Jews in the book of Leviticus. God gave several different sacrifices that he commanded his people to keep, but one such sacrifice sticks out because it was the only sacrifice that allowed the High Priest to enter the holiest part of the temple. In the Jewish tabernacle (temple), you would find three separate places. The outer court was where the people would worship and hear from God. The inner court was only allowed for the priests, and the holy of holies was divided from the rest of the tabernacle by a thick veil. Once a year, the High Priest would go into the holy of holies and offer a sacrifice for the sins of the people. This day was named the “Day of Atonement” (Yom Kipper). Leviticus 16 presents the sacrifice. The High Priest would offer first a sacrifice (a young bullock) for his sins (not in the holy of holies). Following that, he would take two animals (goats or sheep). The animals had to be perfect, without blemish. The High Priest would take the two animals before the door of the tabernacle and cast lots over the goats. In Biblical times, casting lots was similar to our modern idea of drawing straws. Depending on how the lots fell one goat was to be sacrificed the other was to be set free (it was called the scapegoat). On the goat that fell to the Lord, the High Priest would kill, probably by slitting the throat, the goat. As the blood would pour out, the High Priest would catch the blood and take it into the holy of holies and there sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat. The mercy seat was the top of the Ark of the Covenant. God had commanded an ark to be made that reminded the Israelites of God’s covenant with them. The mercy seat is where God communicated with the Jews. Fire and clouds covered the mercy seat to demonstrate the presence of God. As the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat (figuratively where God gives mercy or judgment), it would appease the holiness of God and he would mercifully forgive the people of their sins. Atonement would be made. The High Priest was to then burn up on the altar the dead goat, but that was not the end of the ritual. The High Priest would place his hand on the head of the “scapegoat” and confess the sins of the people. A Levite was to take the scapegoat out in the wilderness far from God’s people and God’s presence and release the goat in a place where he would never return. Whereas the slain lamb symbolized the holiness of God being appeased by the blood of the innocent, the released goat symbolized the removal of sin from God’s presence. Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgression from us.” The goat was not to be ever allowed back in the camp.
The High Priest did this year after year making atonement (forgiveness and reconciliation) for the sins of the people. The Passover feast was kept year after year reminding the people that the judgment of God is only assuaged by the spilling and application of the blood of an innocent. The account of Abraham’s sacrifice was communicated down through the ages teaching the people that God had provided a substitute for the Isaac, the single son of Abraham who was the ancestor of their own people. Every Jewish man, woman, and child had learned that God covered Adam and Eve’s guilt and shame (nakedness) by killing an innocent creature. However, the book of Hebrews tells us that it was not enough. Hebrews 10:1 says, “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things (the laws sacrificial commands and examples was only a representation of what was to come) can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect (complete, finished).” Verses three and four of the same chapter say, “But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” Something else was needed! The Old Testament sacrificial system gave a good “image,” but needed a completion. John the Baptist understood this. On two separate occasions, he saw Jesus and cried aloud, “Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of the world.”
Hebrews 10:10-17 says that we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Jesus Christ offered one sacrifice, his own blood, for sins forever and then ascended into heaven where he sat down at the right hand of God. “For by one offering he hath perfected (completed) forever them that are sanctified.” (V.14) Verse 17 then says, “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”
When we look at the whole picture of God’s plan for mankind, we see that Jesus Christ came to be all four of those lambs. His blood was shed to cover our shame and guilt (Adam and Eve’s sacrifice). He became the substitute for the individual who accepts him (Abraham and Isaac’s sacrifice). He was the Passover lamb whose blood was shed on the cross. When applied to our lives, it removes us from the judgment of God. It is interesting to note that Biblical historians agree that Jesus Christ was crucified at the same moment as most of Israel was slaying the Passover lamb in their homes. He also is the atoning lamb who offered Himself as the atoning sacrifice to reconcile us to the Father. Looking at these Old Testament pictures and the New Testament fulfillment of the sacrifices, several conclusions must be made.
1. Jesus’ sacrifice was sufficient to atone for sin. If Jesus’ death on the cross was not enough, we will still be sacrificing innocent lambs today. When Jesus cried out, “It is finished” while being crucified, he was not screaming in agony and defeat. Instead, he was shouting in victory. It was finished. There was no more need to atone for sin. Jesus fulfilled the need for atonement. If Jesus’ sacrifice is sufficient, anything added to that sacrifice would not only be useless, it would be contradicting the validity of the perfect nature of Jesus’ sacrifice. In other words, Jesus’ sacrifice either paid completely for sin, or did nothing for sin.
2. Jesus’ sacrifice brought an end to the religious rituals and brought fellowship with the Father. The reason that sacrifices were needed so often was because man’s sin separates them from God. Only the perfect lamb was to be sacrificed. Only the perfect son (lamb) of God could bring an end to the religious rituals of sacrifice. Hebrews 10:19-20 says, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;” Remember back how the High Priest had to pass through the thick veil to enter the holy of holies? Three of the Gospels record that the veil separating the “holy of holies” rent in half from top to bottom when Jesus was crucified (Matt. 27:51, Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45). This was extremely important. Entering the holiest is not based on the worthiness of the individual or a religious ceremony, but by the shed blood of Jesus and the torn flesh of his body. Religious form and ritual will never bring reconciliation to God; it is only through the shed blood of Jesus that fellowship could be gained with the Father.
3. Jesus’ sacrifice is the focal point of God’s revelation. There are many things that Christ did while on earth. There are good lessons we can learn in the Old and New Testaments, but the abundant emphasis on the sacrificial system leads us to one final conclusion. The beautiful pictures of the atonement given in the sacrifices of the Old Testament and the fulfillment by Jesus Christ of those sacrifices must be the theme of God’s revelation. Jesus may have lived a good example, but he “offered himself” as the sacrifice for sins. Throughout the Gospels, he declared that his purpose was to die and rise again in three days. To understand the message of the Bible is to understand that Jesus Christ died as the ultimate, substitutionary, perfect sacrifice that forgives, empowers, and lives eternally to give mankind eternal reconciliation with the Father.
This is why Jesus simply said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). There is no way to approach the Father except by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the ultimate sacrifice for sins past, present, and future. Acts 16:31 says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house.”
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