Discovery #21: The Fifth Principle of the Old Testament – Sacrifices

  Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

Note:  This is the fifth of seven principles I’ve identified in the Old Testament that lay a critical foundation for what we read in the New Testament. Understanding these principles will enable the reader to better understand God’s Plan for the Jews in my book.

I asked God, “Why are you taking me through troubled water?” 

He replied, “Because your enemies can’t swim.” (Life Learned Feelings)

The altar shown above is an example of where and how the Jews made sacrifices to their God.

What is a “Sacrifice?”

I think the word “sacrifice” is such a versatile and interesting word. Think about it. A sacrifice can be positive or negative, voluntary or involuntary, a punishment or a learning experience, all of the above or none of the above. If we choose to go on a diet, the sacrifice we make is presumably voluntary and good for us because our goal is to lose weight.  If you get pulled over for speeding, your sacrifice is imposed on you by law. You might not like it, but society requires us to follow certain laws to “protect the greater good.” Yet, that is nothing compared to the sacrifice we suffer when we lose a loved one. It hurts, and nothing will make us feel more helpless or alone.  Life is centered around a series of sacrifices, and if you’re like me, I think I have learned more during my times of trouble than I did during those times when things were going well. Can you relate? I think this is because when we are called to make a sacrifice, we are forced to think. The resulting reflection may cause us to reset priorities and/or adjust perspectives in a way good times usually don’t.

Our Need for Reconciliation

Sacrifices are not just an ordeal we go through; they can also be a way in which we try to reconcile ourselves to God. We’ll talk more about this concept under the Ten Commandments, but let’s first talk about why we need to reconciled with God. What causes us to displease Him? Why do we hurt the people we love and do things we regret? Yes, we can blame it all on Adam and Eve, but they, like us, were made by God with a complex set of triggering mechanisms constantly challenging us to do things we know we’ll regret. These triggering mechanisms work on an “act first,” “think later” wiring in our DNA. Below are just four of our more commonly triggered response mechanisms:

• The Fight-or-Flight response is usually triggered by fear. It forces us to decide whether to confront our fears (fight) or flee them (flight).
• The Moral Imperative response is triggered by our conscience, which tells us the difference between right and wrong. We usually get in trouble here when we don’t listen to our conscience. That is what happened to Adam and Eve.
• The Personal Afront Response is triggered whenever we feel personally threatened, criticized, or attacked—usually resulting in anger or frustration toward our attacker.
• The Tragedy response is triggered when we experience a personal tragedy. Reactions can lead to an inward depression with thoughts of suicide or an outward aggression towards those we assume are responsible. Our emotions are so raw they often override any ability to think.

These triggering mechanisms are so named because they can cause us to do things we would not normally do, usually without thinking about the consequences. They get us in trouble because they are autonomic reactions that depend more on a programmed response than logic. They are driven by fear, moral decay, anger, sadness, and a multitude of other factors.

Today, we will explore how God dealt with these responses in the Old Testament to help His Chosen People, the Jews. There is no shortage of examples we could choose from, but to keep it simple, we’re going to limit it to two:

• The example of Abraham and Issac.
• The example of the Ten Commandments.

Abraham and Isaac

The author of Hebrews, in his most famous chapter—The Faith Hall of Fame (Chapter 11)—praises Abraham for his faith in God. But he doesn’t immediately refer to Abraham’s faith concerning Isaac; instead, it praises him for:

^{8 “}By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” Hebrews 11: 8 NCV

Abraham left his home, wealth, father, and extended family to go to a foreign land simply because the God he loved and had faith in asked him to do it. Granted, that was a “huge leap of faith” and a major sacrifice, but it was not the greatest test of his faith.

In my blog on Covenants, I discussed how Abraham and Sarah (his wife) were extremely old before God blessed them with their first child, Isaac. Imagine how precious this son was to both of them! Isaac was a gift they had long given up on ever having. The Bible says they had faith that God would keep His word, but surely there must have been times when their faith waned. When Isaac finally arrived, he was a much-wanted and overdue blessing.  So, why would God ask Abraham to sacrifice his only beloved son as an offering to the God he trusted? Jesus once told His disciples (John 15:13 NCV):

¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 

But it is one thing if God had asked Abraham to lay down his life for the God he loved, and something entirely different to ask him to take the life of his only son! Parents understand this concept well. Most would willingly sacrifice themselves if it would save the life of one of their children. Imagine if it were your only child and you had waited for him for 100 years. How would you respond? Let’s go back to Hebrews to grab the context:

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, ¹⁸ even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” ¹⁹ Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.  Hebrews 11: 17-18 NCV

There is a great lesson and an unavoidable parallel that we cannot miss here.

1. The Lesson is: God will never ask us to do something that will hurt us or adversely affect what He has promised. Hebrews says that God “tested” Abraham’s faith. Although many read this and think, “What a cruel test!” Is it cruel if God knew what the outcome would be? It would appear that God asked Abraham to do something that would have violated his moral code (do not kill). Yet Abraham didn’t see it that way! Abraham’s response was, “God could even raise the (my child from the) dead,”—implying that God would raise Issac from the dead after Abraham killed him. THAT, my friends, is FAITH!
2. The Parallel: Do you see it? God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, and Abraham reasoned that God would raise him from the dead! This story of sacrifice is a precursor to the story of Jesus. God asked Abraham to have the faith to do what God actually did with His only son, Jesus.

Thus, the first lesson we need to draw from the concept of sacrifice is:

Sacrifice requires faith—often a lot of it!

The Ten Commandments

Why did God give the Jews the Ten Commandments?

God gave Moses the Ten Commandments immediately after their exodus from Egypt and before bringing the Jews to the Promised Land. Why did He choose this timing to present them with a guideline for behavior? We can see God’s thinking by examining what He said to Moses just prior to giving him the Ten Commandments:

“Say this to the family of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel… if you obey me and keep my agreement, you will be … my kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Exodus 19: 3-6 NCV

As we learned in my previous blog, these verses comprise what is called “The Mosaic Covenant.” And the agreement God is referring to is the Ten Commandments. God was preparing the Jews to enter into a place that would be called The Promised Land, where their destiny was to become a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” To achieve that lofty goal, they would have to follow the laws that God would provide to them because God’s intent was:

I am the Lord who brought you out of Egypt to be your God; you must be holy because I am holy.  Leviticus 11:45 NCV

The Law was God’s way of showing the Jews what it would take to live a life free of sin—the standard by which holiness is defined. In its simplest form (the Ten Commandments), the Law wasn’t too tough to figure out—it makes sense because it follows the Moral Imperative that our conscience tells us is the right thing to do (e.g., do not kill, do not steal, do not commit adultery, etc.) Then, the Jews did what every government on earth has done—they added more laws until they had a legal system centered around 613 regulations that would guide their society!  What is amazing about what God did here was He knew that for any society to exist, thrive, and sustain itself, it would require a mutually agreed-upon standard of behavior (laws). Laws are the glue that holds civilizations together. They are designed to help curb behavior resulting from our trigger mechanisms. To work properly, the people must decide which leaders they will trust to create, interpret, and enforce how their government will run.

Why did the Jews make sacrifices?

Once a law is instituted, what happens when someone breaks it? How will society decide what punishment fits each crime? For the Jews, God instituted a system that defined two types of enforcement—both centered around making a sacrifice:

• Sacrifices that carried a punishment (for the more severe crimes—which might include something as extreme as the death penalty).
• Sacrifices offered for atonement. Atonement was a way in which the offender could “wash away” their sin(s) so they could be reconciled back to God and the community (something like community service).

Sacrifices made for atonement assumed that the person offering the sacrifice was sincere. Yet, the motivation of the person offering a sacrifice could range all over the place. Despite what the Jews knew about their God, they still felt they could fool Him with a sacrifice offered with the wrong attitude. When we come before God, we can offer our sacrifice as:

• Something we do as an apology to God—WHEN we believe we have done something wrong.
• Something we do because we fear God—IF we believe He is a vengeful God.
• Something we do because of our guilt—WHEN we know we are guilty.
• Something we do to try and manipulate or bribe God—IF we feel we can get away with our deception.
• Something we do out of obedience to God—WHEN we know He has asked us to do it.
• Something we do out of love for God—When we want to please Him.

A Proper Attitude Matters!

The sincerest motives for sacrificing in the above list are probably an apology to God, obedience to God, and/or love for God. God will see and cherish such attitudes. He cannot be fooled!

Finally, a sacrifice is supposed to be just that—a sacrifice. If it is too easy, God may judge us as insincere. Although we probably will never be asked to sacrifice one of our children (as was Abraham), when we bring a sacrifice to God, we should grapple with the question, “Is my sacrifice a sufficient and proper response for my sin?”  I found a quote from a Jewish Rabbi who expressed what he thought was the benefit of making sacrifices. He said, “Where people make sacrifices for their ideals, the ideals stay strong.” ((www.chabad.org. “Understanding Sacrifice” by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks)) I see sacrifice as a way to strengthen our “faith muscles”—the more we stretch them through our sacrifices, the stronger they get. The Old Testament also gives us many reasons why we should want to please God with our sacrifices:

• • • ⁶ … so you will see the Lord’s glory.” Leviticus 9: 6 NCV

• • • ⁷ … so you will belong to God. Leviticus 9: 7 NCV

• • • ⁴ … (so He) will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. Leviticus 26: 3-4 NIV

The Lesson of the Law and Sacrifice

God gave the Jews the Law as a barometer to measure holiness. Then, knowing that they would fall short of the standard, God gave them the concept of sacrificing as a means to re-establish their relationship with Him. It was, in every sense, a way to wash themselves clean from the stain of sin. Leviticus 14: 19 (NIV) put it this way:

¹⁹ “…the priest is to sacrifice the sin offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from their uncleanness. Leviticus 14: 19 NIV

Then, the Apostle John expressed:

But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust God to do what is right. He will cleanse us from all the wrongs we have done. I John 1:9 NCV

In 70 AD, the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. Since then, they have had no place to make sacrifices to their God. So, what are they to do? According to tradition, after the loss of the Temple, “it remains remarkable how simply and smoothly the sages were able to construct substitutes for sacrifice, three in particular: prayer, study, and tzedakah (giving).” ((www.chabad.org. “Understanding Sacrifice” by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks)) Thus, for both the Jew and the Christian, prayer is our best way to approach God and receive His cleansing blessing and forgiveness. There is power in prayer. But not just any prayer:

A Prayer (or sacrifice) offered:

• • • In sincere faith in God,
    • Accompanied by wholehearted love for God, and
    • Submitted in humble obedience to God

Will unleash the full power, glory, and love of the one and only true God who is both able and willing to respond to our prayers.

Praise God for showing us how the Law revealed how far we are from Him, yet through His grace and our prayers, we can experience fellowship and love with Him!

The only difference between an Old Testament sacrifice and

a New Testament prayer is their expiration date!

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