By Rev Adrian Grubbs
Spring Quarter: Worship, Sacrifices, and Offerings
Unit 1: Tabernacle, Sacrifices, and Atonement
The New Testament uses sacrifices from the Old Testament as metaphors to interpret Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. That sacrificial system is antiquated, obsolete, and difficult for twenty-first-century Westerners to comprehend. Consequently, Jesus’ death on the cross has at times been grossly misunderstood. For example, His death has been preached as the way to appease an angry God. Old Testament sacrifices were neither intended to appease nor to bribe a fickle and angry God. Other peoples in other religions believed that they had to make sacrifices (even human sacrifices!) to their false gods to appease their anger or to bribe their goodwill – but not so for the One True God, the God of the Bible. Sometimes God does become angry with His people when they disobey, transgress, or rebel against His instructions; but the way to “appease” the God of the Bible is to right the wrong, to atone for the transgression, to be cleansed of the sin, and to be forgiven. With the sin removed, the sinner is reconciled with God. All this is spelled out in Leviticus. This month we will study two passages from Leviticus; but first, let us look at three texts from Exodus.
The setting for Exodus 19 is two months after the Israelites left Egypt, and three days before Moses was to receive the Ten Commandments (literally, the Ten Words).). Note the language: they arrived at the mountain on the third new moon, and on the third day the people gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai while Moses went up the mountain. In preparation for the third day, the people were instructed to wash their clothes (and presumedly their bodies) before standing before Yahweh. When we come into God’s special presence we really need to be prepared and to present ourselves at our very best! At Mount Sinai God renegotiated His covenant with His people (God “established” a covenant with Noah, expanded the covenant with Abraham, renewed it with Isaac and Jacob, renegotiated it through Moses, etc.; and finally, through Jesus, He brought the Christian Church into His covenant). At Mt. Sinai the People of God were ordained to be a priestly kingdom and a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9 applies that to the Christian Church). A priest has dual responsibilities – to represent God to the people, and to represent the people to God. The word “holy” means to “set apart;” Israel was “set apart” for God’s purpose, and in Christ the Christian Church was set apart for God’s purpose. The extensive and elaborate rituals involved in Exodus 19 and 20 emphasize the great importance of the ordination of God’s children as a priestly kingdom and set apart to be a holy nation.
Exodus 25 and 26 calls for elaborate ritual and extensive detail in the construction of the Tabernacle. For forty years the children of Israel would be travelling and living in tents. Since Yahweh traveled with them, a tent was constructed for Him. The tabernacle signified God’s Presence among His people; the ark of the covenant represented God’s throne. The inner sanctum, the Most Holy Place, or Holy of Holies, was 10x10x10 cubits (about 18x18x18 ft), containing the ark of the covenant with its mercy seat and cherubim. The space in front was twice as long, the same height and width, containing the altar of incense, atable for the bread of the Presence, and the lampstand. The altar for sacrifice was in front the entrance to the tabernacle. A wall of decorative curtains 50x100 cubits marked off the courtyard surrounding the tabernacle and altar. Men, women, and resident aliens could enter the courtyard and offer sacrifices to God. More restrictions came into play by the time of Herod the Great so that women and non-Jews could access only certain areas of the temple grounds.
Exodus 29 prescribes the ordination of priests for the kingdom of priests. Every group needs leaders, so out of the priestly kingdom certain ones were chosen to be ordained as priests to tend to the tabernacle and to lead the people. Aaron and his four sons, and their descendants, would serve as priests within a kingdom of priests. The priests were to lead the kingdom of priests in representing God before all nations; they were to serve God by serving all peoples. Again, the elaborate rituals emphasize the great importance of the event.
Leviticus details the various sacrifices that could be presented to God: burnt offering, peace offering, sin offering, and guilt offering. Leviticus 1 describes the burnt offering, which could be bull, lamb, goat, birds, or bread. Some sacrifices were voluntary, some were personal, others were communal. There were sacrifices for priests, for civil leaders, for ordinary Israelites, and even for resident aliens. Sacrifices could be four-legged animals or birds (“clean” animals only), or even grain. Some sacrifices were completely consumed by fire on the altar; some were partially burned on the altar while the rest was burned outside the camp. Priests received parts of some sacrifices; some sacrifices were consumed by persons presenting the offering. Animals without blemish were to be presented to the Lord; the one making the sacrifice would lay a hand on the head of the animal identifying it as his or hers which was given to God; the animal was to be slaughtered on the north side of the altar in front to the tabernacle; the priest collected the blood and sprinkled it on the horns and/or sides of the altar; and sometimes blood was taken inside the tabernacle and rubbed on the ark. In other words, it was quite involved and complicated. Which sacrifice describes Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross? No one sacrifice fully explains Jesus’ sacrifice, but each of them illustrates some aspect of the sacrifice Jesus made for us. The Gospel of John, Paul in 1 Corinthians 5, and Revelation see Jesus as our Passover lamb. Hebrews 9 sees Him as the High Priest and as the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement.
Leviticus 16 is about the Day of Atonement. The chapter begins with a special cleansing of the tabernacle which became polluted by two priests, sons of Aaron, who consequently died. At the end of the chapter those rituals were to become an annual event on the Day of Atonement. In the words of John Goldingay, “The Day of Atonement … is indeed the holiest day of the year” [John Goldingay, Exodus & Leviticus for Everyone (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 157]. That was the only time that the high priest entered the Most Holy Place, the inner sanctuary in which was the Ark of The Covenant. Three animals were sacrificed: a bull as a sin offering to atone for the priest; two goats were presented to the LORD – one as a sin offering to atone for Israel and the tabernacle, and one to carry Israel’s sins and rebellions away into the wilderness. Aaron laid a hand on the head of the first goat on behalf of the people and two hands on the other goat while confessing the sins of Israel and transferring those sins onto the scapegoat. “Atonement” means “to make at one,” or “at one-ment.” It is about reconciliation, about the removal of the sin that causes the separation of one from another. The first goat atoned for the sins of Israel, Israel was forgiven and was reconciled to God; the second goat carried away Israel’s sins, never to be seen again.
Next month we will see what the New Testament says about Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself for us, and for all the world, for all in the world who will believe in Him.
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