•The history of sacrifices is connected with the history of humanity from the very beginning, since the sin of Adam and Eve.
“The wages of sin is death.” (Room 6 : 23) Man deserved death as a result of his sin, according to the Lord’s warning to him
(Gen 2 : 17; 3:3).
But God’s mercy, and wisdom on the other hand, willed to save man from death, for as St. Athanasius the Apostolic said, “It was better for man not to be created, than to be created to die”. Furthermore God did not permit it to give Satan an opportunity for victory to destroy the superior earthly creation; man, who is made in God’s image and likeness (Gen 1:26,27). Therefore, there had to be a solution to save man.
The solution was the Redemption and Atonement, that is, a soul dies instead of another soul.
Hence arose the idea of sacrifices, which means that an innocent soul dies instead of a sinful person by shedding that soul’s blood instead of the blood of the sinful. So the world knew the principle: “without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Heb 9;22).
But the blood of those sacrifices was not enough for the redemption, because the sin of man was unlimited, since it was committed against the unlimited. There had to be an unlimited atonement the real Redeemer had to come in the fullness of time, “to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Lk 19:10).
All the sacrifices of the Old Testament, therefore, were a symbol of the sacrifice of the Lord Christ.
How did these sacrifices begin, and how they developed and what did they symbolize? This will be expounded here briefly because this topic needs a whole book.
• The story began since the first man’s sin. No sooner had they sinned than they felt their nakedness. The fig leaves were not suitable as coverings, so God mad tunics of skin and clothed them (Gen 3:21). It was undoubtedly the skin of a slaughtered animal. This incident was implanted in man’s memory.
Sin results in nakedness and shame, whereas the sacrifice covers.
• Adam’s son, Abel, followed the same principle. Abel offered to God of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat, and God accepted that offering which Abel received though tradition. People knew that they should offer to God the best they have, and no one ate of those sacrifices. They were all consumed by fire. That is why they were called “burnt offerings”: “Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.” (Gen 8 : 20).
With the principle of burnt offerings there was the principle of the cleanness of the sacrifice.
The fathers continued to build altars and offer burnt offerings as we read in the history of our Abraham (Gen 12:7,8), in the history of Job the Righteous (Job 1:5) and other fathers.
• Then God offered the world another experience :
The sacrifice of the only begotten son as a burnt offering implying redemption.
God said to our father Abraham, “Take now your son, your only son … and offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains.” (Gen 22:2). And at the same time He sent him a ram to be offered instead of his son (Gen 22:13).
This double image became implanted in the minds. However, the fathers had no regulation for offering sacrifices. A law was only set the hands of Moses the Prophet:
The first written law about sacrifices was that of the Passover lamb.
All the firstborn were subject to death, and the only way to be saved from it was through the Passover lamb. The blood of the lamb was to be sprinkled over the doors in order that the angel may not destroy those behind the doors: “Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.”
(Ex 12:13). That Passover sacrifice was a symbol of Christ, as St. Paul explains : “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.”
(1 Cor 5:7). Those taking refuge behind the blood were the redeemed, for the Lord seeing the blood passed over them and they were not destroyed. Thus the people became fully aware of the importance of the blood for their salvation, “without shedding of blood there is no remission.”
(Heb 9:22).
• Then Moses the Prophet organized the offering of sacrifices in the Book of Leviticus and the law for each of them.
The burnt offering was the first. What is the reason?
It is described as: “a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.” (Lev 1:9,13,17). It was offered wholly to the Lord, no one was to eat from it, but it was totally consumed by fire till it turned into ashes (Lev 6:12,13). Fire represented the divine justice which was satisfied through the burnt offering. Man, who disobeyed and sinned, appears in this burnt offering submitting to the fire of the Lord in contrition. The Lord Christ became a burnt offering instead of us.
Here we remember that sin had two results: the first was grieving God’s heart and separation from Him. The second was the destruction of man.
Here, the burnt offering was to please God’s heart which we made angry and sad by our sins and disobedience.
That is why it came first in order, because we have first to get reconciled to God, and to please Him, before caring about ourselves and our salvation . The burnt offering was therefore a sweet aroma to the Lord. It is a lesson to us who always care about ourselves rather than about God’s rights.
• What about our salvation; our deliverance from the destruction caused us by sin?
The redeeming work for our salvation is represented in the Book of Leviticus by the Sin offering and the Trespass offering.
Both have the same law, but one was for the sins committed intentionally, and the other for the sins committed unintentionally (Lev 4:13,22,27). We should then be aware that the unintentional sin is counted against us because it is breading of God’s commandment, even though it is done against our will or without knowing.
However, the trespass offering was most holy (Lev 7:1), and likewise the sin offering (Lev 6:25).
They were most holy because each of them made atonement, removed away sin, and paid the wages of sin, symbolically.
Each of them was a symbol of the Lord who accomplished the redemption and paid off the wages of sin so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (Jn 2:16). The Lord, on the cross, were both a sin offering and a trespass offering: “All we like sheep have gone astray … and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa 53 : 6) He stood before the Father as a sinner.
He was not a sinner, but a bearer of sin.
There had to be an innocent who bears the sins of the others, but there was no one righteous, “They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one.” (Ps 14:1-3). Then came that solely righteous, who alone is holy “… undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens.” (Heb 7:26). That Righteous came and “bore our sins in His own body” (1 Pet 2:24) He paid the wages of our sins to the divine justice.
• I would like here to introduce some points concerning sacrifices and the way of offering them :
1- The sinner had to put his hand on the head of the sacrifice while offering it.
This applies to the burnt offering, the sin offering, and the peace offering (Lev 1:4; 4:4, 15,24; 3:1,2). This procedure meant that he accepted that the sacrificed would die instead of him. This also implied his confession that he had sinned and deserved to die, so he brought that animal to die instead of him. Moreover, putting the hand on the sacrifice means that sin was transferred from him to it. This also means that he believed in the principle of atonement and redemption.
2- The sinner had to confess that he had sinned.
“And it shall be, when he is guilty in any of these matters that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing; and he shall bring his trespass offering to the Lord for his sin which he has committed.” (Lev 5:5,6).
3- The blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on the altar.
This applies to the burnt offering, the peace offering, and the trespass offering (Lev 3:2,8,13; 7:3; 4:5,7). The blood was sprinkled seven times in front of the veil of the sanctuary, in the case of the sin offering (Lev 4:5-7).
4- The most important thing for God in the atonement was the blood of the sacrifice.
The blood was everywhere, in the tabernacle, in the wilderness, and under the altar. This meant that the altar was established on the blood. Sprinkling blood seven times meant that the atonement of the blood became complete. Again, sprinkling I in front of the veil meant that the veil that separated us from God was to be removed away through blood.
5- Blood referred to death.
It referred to the death caused by sin and was inflicted on that sacrifice, “for the life of the flesh is in the blood.” (Lev 17:11).
However, it should be well understood that the sinners who offered those sacrifices only received the deed of forgiveness that was to be granted on the cross.
So, forgiveness was not giving by the shedding of the blood of the animal offered as a sacrifice, but by the shedding of the blood of Christ. That which they received was only a deed that gave them worthiness. Therefore St. Paul truly said about the heroes of faith:
“There all dies in faith, not having received the promises but having seen them afar off were assured of them.” (Heb 11 : 13).
Those sacrifices were a more symbol, but when the Symbolized went up on the cross and said, “Father, forgive them.” (Lk 23:34) only then the wages of sin was paid off.
There is much more to be said about sacrifices, but I promise you I will publish a whole book on sacrifices and what they symbolize.