[Music] [Music] hello and welcome to another teaching from 119 ministries our ministry believes that the whole Bible is still true and directly related to our lives today if you would like to know more about what we believe in teach please visit us and test everything net we hope that you enjoy studying and testing the following teaching [Music] when believers begin to learn that the law of God the Torah is still valid for believers today and that neither the Messiah nor the Apostles taught that any part of it was done away with some common questions tend to arise perhaps some of the most common questions concern the role of animal sacrifices in our theology someone might ask well if it's true that every iota and died of the law is still in effect as Yeshua seems to say in Matthew chapter 5 verses 17 through 20 what are we to do about animal sacrifices do we build an altar and sacrifice goats in our backyard in a practical sense that's certainly the most relevant issue as it concerns the keeping of the Torah how do we keep those aspects of God's Torah today some other relevant questions that often come up are as follows what is the purpose of animal sacrifices anyway our our animal sacrifice is going to occur when the Messiah returns as several passages in the Bible seem to suggest if so how do we view them in light of Yeshua's death which the New Testament describes as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins finally what does all of this really have to do with sin forgiveness atonement and the gospel thankfully the Bible has answers to these important questions we'll explore these questions throughout this teaching and present some answers that will hopefully help you get a clearer understanding of this fascinating topic after that we'll unpack the role that animal sacrifices play in our faith today before we begin while it's unfortunate you've likely noticed that this topic is often neglected within modern Christianity we as 21st century Westerners are thousands of years disconnected from the world of animal sacrifice if we're honest it just seems utterly bizarre to us our minds get this picture of something from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom creepy ritualistic services and bringing your pet goat to a man in a strange robe with slit its throat and sprinkled blood on things it's weird however being familiar with this topic is crucial to understanding some incredibly significant biblical teachings such as atonement and redemption which are all wrapped up in the very Gospel message of our Messiah therefore we need to get over our Western sensibilities a little bit as dr. William Lane Craig puts it most of us have never seen an animal slaughtered much less done it ourselves and as a custom as we are to bind our meat and poultry and antiseptic Olear at packaging and refrigerated bins we are apt to find the animal sacrifices described in the Old Testament volting moreover most of us have no familiarity with a world in which ritual practices fraught with symbolic meaning play a major role in one's interactions with the spiritual realm and so the Old Testament cult may strike us as a bizarre and opaque if we were to understand these practices we need to shed our Western sensibilities and try to enter sympathetically into the world of bucolic Society that was not squeamish about blood and guts and which had a highly developed ritual system in its approach to God ultimately learning that details about the sacrifices and offerings is a mean sin knowing God in a greater way it helps us understand his holiness and how He desires to be worshipped it gives us greater revelation of our Messiah and his work on the cross this topic is definitely important and relevant to believers in Yeshua even though it might seem strange to many of us with that said let's begin first what exactly is the point of animal sacrifices why did God demand them why did he establish a priesthood and sacrificial system to answer these questions we need to understand the problem between humans and God in the beginning before sin entered the world God's presence dwelt with man in the garden there was perfect fellowship between God and man everything was how it should be but when sin entered the world that fellowship was broken the result of sin was that man was exiled from the Garden separated from God's presence Genesis chapter 3 therefore Yahweh God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken he drove out the man and at the east of the Garden of Eden he placed a cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the Tree of Life man was created to have a relationship with God that is our purpose in life to know God to have fellowship with him to bring him glory but that relationship was broken due to sin all of us are affected by this problem of being separated from God why because God is perfectly holy and righteous and thus cannot dwell in the midst of sin and death thus sinful man cannot commune with God this fact of being separated from God due to our sin is the great tragedy of human existence but the good news is that God promises to one day completely abolish sin and death there will be a new heaven and new earth and God's present well once again overtake the earth as it was in the Garden of Eden as it says at the end of Revelation revelation 21 and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling place of God is with man he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God Himself will be with them as their God interestingly revelation goes on to say that there actually won't be a temple in the New Jerusalem in the previous chapter we learned that all evil and sin and death will be abolished and swallowed up in the lake of fire therefore there won't be a need for a physical temple or tabernacle the house God's presence on earth however until that time in the future there's a need for one why it goes back to the main reason man was separated from God's presence to begin with sin and death simply put God is holy and his presence cannot dwell in the midst of sin and death it would be a diction logically impossible holiness and life cannot exist in the same place as sin and death so the tabernacle and temple became the boundaries between the holy and the common clean and unclean life and death the purpose of the tabernacle and temple was so that God could dwell in the midst of his people and have fellowship with them but why the need for animal sacrifices well after the tabernacle was constructed and the glory of Yahweh filled it we still see that nobody could commune with the presence of God Exodus chapter 40 then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle and Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it and the glory of Yahweh filled the tabernacle so while the presence of God dwelled within a tabernacle on earth something more was required for man to be able to commune with God Leviticus tells us what that is Leviticus chapter 1 verse to speak to the people of Israel and say to them when any one of you brings an offering to Yahweh you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock this brings us right back to where we started the reason for a tabernacle priesthood and animal sacrifices lies in the meaning of the Hebrew word offering used in this passage the word is Corbin which actually has its root in the verb kaurav meaning to draw near that's ultimately the point of the offerings to draw near to God it all goes back to having a relationship with God encountering his presence on earth the tabernacle priesthood and sacrifices are all part of God's solution for restoring the relationship between God and man as we await the New Jerusalem to come so man was able to commune with God in the tabernacle by bringing and offering the death of the animal provided a sort of proxy for man to draw near to God in other words the shed blood of the animal makes fellowship between God and man on earth possible look at what it says in the next two verses of Leviticus Leviticus chapter 1 verses three through four if his offering is a burnt offering from the herd he shall offer a male without blemish he shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting that he may be accepted before Yahweh he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him we talked about God being perfectly holy and thus he does not dwell in the midst of sin for Israel it was serious and risky business to have a holy God dwell in the midst of sinful man in fact approaching God carelessly resulted in death as we see with Aaron's two sons Nate AB and AB you found in Leviticus 10 we see this again in God's threat to leave Israel after the Golden Calf incident Exodus chapter 33 go up to a land flowing with milk and honey but I will not go up among you lest I consume you on the way for you are a stiff-necked people when the people heard this disastrous word they mourned and no one put on his ornaments for Yahweh had said to Moses say to the people of Israel you are a stiff-necked people for if a single moment I should go up among you I would consume you so now take off your ornaments that they may know what to do with you in this passage God said he would still allow Israel to possess the land that he promised Abraham despite the Golden Calf incident but his presence would not go with them why because his perfect holiness would consume them on the way later Moses interceded on behalf of Israel and then God said his presence would go with them because Moses had found favor in God's sight the point here again is that God's presence is so utterly holy that he will consume all that is unholy when it draws near sin cannot exist in the same space as God's holy presence this was not something to be taken lightly therefore when it came to dealing with the problem of human sin and death in light of approaching a holy God the animal sacrifices functioned in a few different ways one aspect of the animal sacrifices was propitiatory that is averting God's just wrath upon sinful man Craig explains the sacrificial system functioned to facilitate the juxtaposition of the holy and the unholy it did this not merely by purging the tabernacle and its paraphernalia of impurity but also by propitiating God and so averting his wrath upon his people the roasting of the sacrificed animals in particular is repeatedly said to produce a pleasing odor to the Lord another aspect of the animal sacrifices was expiatory there were some sacrifices for example that cleansed the tabernacle and sacred objects but sacrifices also served to remove their ritual impurity as well as the moral guilt of the people they serve to make atonement or bring about reconciliation between God and man so that man could draw near to God in the tabernacle or the temple this is also a repeated promise in the Torah Leviticus chapter 4 as he did with the bull of this sin offering so shall he do with this and the priest shall make atonement for them and they shall be forgiven verses 25 and 26 then the priests shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar so the priests shall make atonement for him for his sin and he shall be forgiven Leviticus chapter 5 verses 9 and 10 and he shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar and the priests shall make atonement for him for the sin that he has committed and he shall be forgiven so how exactly did the sacrifices bring about atonement resulting in a person's sin being forgiven so that the worshiper could draw near to God why is a sacrifice required in order for a man to be reconciled with God and therefore be allowed to commune with God going back to a passage we read earlier the chapter one verses two through four Kraig gives us some interesting insight here the personal Levitical animal offerings were accompanied by its helling and Lane ritual the offeror of the animal sacrifice was to lay his hand upon the animal's head before slaying it the Hebrew expression samake ato indicates a forceful lane of the hand one was to press his hand upon the head of the Beast to be sacrificed this emphatic gesture is plausibly meant to indicate the identification of the offer with the animal so that the animal's fate symbolizes his own death is the penalty for sin and the animal dies in place of the worshipper this is not to say that the animal was punished in the place of the worshipper rather the animal suffered the fate that would have been the worshippers punishment had it happened to him the priests sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifice on the altar whatever its exact meaning indicates minimally that the animal's life has been offered to God as a sacrifice to atone for their offer or sin the death of the animal reminds us that we deserve death because of our sin but the animal dies instead of us when the worshipper placed his hands on the animal it symbolized a worshippers transfer of his identity onto the animal the animal in his sense died on behalf of the worshipper as we've noted the animal sacrifices are said to make atonement throughout the Torah which is often connected to the forgiveness of sins but there's actually another dimension of atonement that's interesting for us to consider drawing near to God through presenting a burnt offering included taking the blood from the slaughtered animal and sprinkling it on the sides of the altar Leviticus chapter 1 verse 5 then he shall kill the bull before Yahweh and Aaron's sons the priests shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting what was the significance of this ritual according to some scholars the key to understanding this lies in the concept of the blood containing the life that is this soul of the creature or in Hebrew the nafech of the creature Leviticus 17 for the life nephesh of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls nephesh for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life nephesh when the priest sprinkled the animal's blood on the altar according to this verse he essentially applied the animal's nephesh or life to the altar why because the life is in the blood however because of the ritual of the laying on of hands the animal's blood or its life carried the identity of the worshipper thus it was symbolically the worshippers life that is applied to the altar so why was the blood placed on the altar again it's all about man having fellowship with God Lancaster explains in the ancient world people considered altars as touching points between heaven and earth and altar worked like a gate a sort of mystical portal between the realm of man and the realm of the divine whatever touch the altar became holy or richly sent apart to God and entered his presence from on top of the altar the bodies of the sacrifices ascended and smoke to God through the medium of the animals blood the offerors soul entered the presence of God and short the soul of the worshipper came near to God in his holy place this sacrificial substitute overcame the problem of approaching a holy God now that we have an idea of the purpose of the animal sacrifices we can move on to see how they might apply in light of the New Testament as we mentioned at the beginning of this teaching Yeshua affirmed the ongoing authority of every iota and dot of the Torah which of course would include animal sacrifices in fact in the Gospels he directly instructs people to participate in the sacrificial system mark chapter 1 and a leper came to him imploring him and kneeling said to him if you will you can make be clean moved with pity he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him I will be clean and immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean and Yeshua sternly charged him and sent him away at once and said to him see that you say nothing to anyone but go show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded for a proof to them some might argue that since this event occurred before Yeshua's death and resurrection the sacrificial system obviously still applied but after Yeshua rose from the dead and inaugurated the New Covenant sacrifices are now done away with the problem with that argument is that believers in Yeshua and the New Testament including the Apostles themselves still participated in temple services long after Yeshua's resurrection here are just a few examples Acts chapter 2 and day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes they received their food with glad and generous hearts Acts chapter 3 now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer the ninth hour Acts chapter 21 then Paul took the men in the next day he purified himself along with them and went into the temple giving notice when the days of purification would be fulfilled and the offering presented for each one of them in this next verse Paul uses the temple service as an analogy in support of his argument that it is right for the people to support their teachers if Paul saw the temple service as illegitimate in light of Yeshua's resurrection surely he wouldn't appeal to it and supportive his teaching 1st Corinthians chapter 9 do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share and the sacrificial offerings in the same way the LORD commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel in addition to the New Testament references indicating a continuation of temple service and animal sacrifices many theologians teach that there will be a future earthly priesthood and temple where sacrifices will be performed after his shoe his second coming and before the new heavens and new earth this is during what is called the millennial reign it will be an era where the Messiah will rule and reign on earth from Jerusalem Revelation chapter 20 then I saw Thrones and seated on them where those to whom the authority to judge was committed also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Yeshua and for the word of God and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years the rest of the Dead did not come back to life until the thousand years were ended this is the first resurrection blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection over such the second death has no power but they will be priests of God and of Christ and they will reign with him for a thousand years theologians have identified this future period of a thousand years when Yeshua will reign on earth to be the same world to come prophesied about throughout the Tanakh and the passage is discussing this world to come there are several references to an earthly priesthood and a Nuke Laureus temple that will be rebuilt and these passages even detail some of the animal sacrifices that will take place here is a list of passages within the context of the millennial reign that discuss animal sacrifices verses from Ezekiel Isaiah Jeremiah Zechariah and Malachi in addition to the passages in the New Testament that indicate a continuation of animal sacrifice as well as the passages throughout the Tanakh indicating that animal sacrifices will be performed in the future there's this interesting passage in Jeremiah that is often overlooked Jeremiah 33 thus says Yahweh if you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night so that day and night will not come at their appointed time then also my covenant with David my servant may be broken so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne a my covenant with medical priests my ministers as the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea can not be measured so I will multiply the offspring of David my servant and the Levitical priests who minister to me in this passage God declares that his covenant with the Levitical priesthood can never be broken his covenant with them and David is as absolute as the reliability of day and night if we doubt the validity of the Levitical priesthood according to Jeremiah we must also doubt the validity of God's promise to David to bring the Messiah who will reign from his line obviously that would be very problematic God keeps his promises all we need to do is look outside to see that day and night still come therefore the Levitical priesthood has now been abolished having established that how do we make sense of the ongoing validity of animal sacrifices in light of the new testament teaching regarding the messiah do animal sacrifices somehow take away from the value of the messiah sacrifice the key to resolving this apparent dilemma is by recognizing and it is only through the Messiah's death that our sins are forgiven Hebrews chapter 10 and by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Yeshua the Messiah once for all and every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins but when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins he sat down at the right hand of God did you catch that the author of Hebrews states that animal sacrifices could never take away sins it's the Messiah's sacrifice that takes away sin this is even clearer earlier in hebrews hebrews 10 verses 1 through 4 for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities it can never buy the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near otherwise would they not have ceased to be since the worshipers having once been cleansed would no longer have any consciousness of sins but in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins as the author of Hebrews says the animal sacrifices have always been a shadow that points to the reality accomplished in the Messiah's work they are given to take away sins in an eternal or ultimate sense they simply point to that which does therefore animal sacrifices made before and after Yeshua's sacrifice are memorial in nature and thus do not devalue his sacrifice there are not two ways of salvation nor two ways of forgiveness it's all on the basis of Messiah messianic theologian Tim Hague puts it this way since the animal sacrifices were never given to make the infinite payment for sin which God requires a payment only the infinite and eternal son of God could accomplish we recognize that offering a sacrifice at the tabernacle or temple can in no way diminish the value of messiahs death only if this scriptures taught that animal sacrifices actually did make eternal payment for sin before the coming of Yeshua could offering them after you issue his death signal a disregard for what he had accomplished in fact the offering of sacrifices rather than detracting from yeshua point to his work of redeeming sinners but wait a minute some might say doesn't the Torah teach that animal sacrifices brought about forgiveness of sin this is true according to several verses we quoted earlier animal sacrifice is clearly atoned for sin so how do we reconcile this apparent contradiction this is cleared up once we understand that the atonement accomplished via animal sacrifice related specifically to matters of ritual purity in regards to the earthly temple or tabernacle that is to say that sin prevented one from being able to draw near to God in the temple or tabernacle thus the animal sacrifices function to bring about a temporal atonement so that the worshiper could return to a state of ritual purity and thus participate in the temple or Tabernacle services animal sacrifices also functioned as a shadow to demonstrate God's method of forgiving sins and an ultimate sense that is the innocent paying the price for the guilty as heck puts it this sacrifices function to substantiate the method by which God forgives sins but they did not provide the very means for this forgiveness the author of Hebrews himself makes this same distinction between temporal and ultimate atonement Hebrews chapter 9 for if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for a purification of the flesh how much more will the blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God purify our conscience from dead works to serve the Living God the cleansing of the flesh refers to the worshiper returning to a state of ritual purity so they can be allowed to draw near to God in the temple or Tabernacle service the animal sacrifices however could not purify the conscience they weren't given for that purpose animal sacrifices function in the earthly realm to purify the flesh and Yeshua's sacrifice functioned in the heavenly realm to purify the conscience thus again animal sacrifices do not detract from your schewe sacrifice because they weren't given to purify our conscience they aren't intended to take away sin in an ultimate sense only Yeshua's sacrifice can do that some might argue that animal sacrifices are now pointless on the basis that they only directed us to the Messiah and now that we have Messiah the substance we no longer need the shadow but as we pointed out earlier if that's true the Apostles apparently didn't get the memo in fact even the author of Hebrews who goes to great links to demonstrate how the Messiah is a superior sacrifice and priests acknowledge the continuing validity of the Levitical priesthood on earth Hebrews chapter 8 verse 4 now if he Messiah Yahshua were on earth he would not be a priest at all since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law the earthly priesthood temple and animal sacrifices still serve a valid function first they bring about a ritual purity for those who had become ritually impure through sin so that they could be allowed to participate in the temple service on earth second they also serve to paint a picture of God's plan of redemption through Messiah that's why the author of Hebrews continually describes the temple priest and animal sacrifices as shadows Paul uses similar language in Colossians and reference to this Sabbath and festivals which are said to be a shadow of things still to come Colossians chapter 2 verses 16 through 17 therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath these are a shadow of the things to come but this substance belongs to Christ it is a rather visceral experience having to kill something innocent simply because we sent it is a deep reminder of this sacrifice Messiah made on our behalf it's noteworthy to mention that both Paul and the author of Hebrews stated that the Sabbath festivals priesthood sacrifices etc continue to function in this way they were writing after the death resurrection and ascension of the Messiah if they thought that shadows were functionally meaningless and now that the Messiah had come why even bring it up why go to such great lengths to explain the role and function of these Torah Commandments if they don't even matter anymore why not just say we don't have to worry about these things anymore because the Messiah has come the very fact that the author of Hebrews spends entire chapters explaining how Yeshua could didn't be a priest according to the Torah indicates that he still considers that Torah is regulations concerning the priesthood to be authoritative right another thing to know about this passage from Colossians is that Paul says that there are still things in the future to which the shadows point thus not only do the shadows point back to the issue is death and resurrection but they point forward still to Yeshua's future reign and the restoration of all things thus the argument we've already had this substance we don't need this shadow anymore is based on a false premise according to Paul the full substance has not yet arrived for more on this we recommend our teaching Colossians 2 so as we can see animal sacrifices in the Torah are far from pointless even after Yeshua's death resurrection and ascension it's no wonder then that so many Christian theologians acknowledged that animal sacrifices will again be performed and still function as shadows during the millennial reign as the former Chancellor of Dallas Theological Seminary John F Wolford puts it though varied explanations have been given for Ezekiel chapter 40 through 48 which unfolds these details no satisfactory explanation has been made other than it is a description of millennial worship in any case it is clear that the sacrifices are not expiry but merely memorials of the one complete sacrifice of Christ if in the wisdom and sovereign pleasure of God the detailed system of sacrifices in the Old Testament were a suitable for shadowing of that which would be accomplished by the death of his son and if a memorial of Christ's death is to be enacted it would not seem unfitting that some sort of sacrificial system would be used so now that we've learned the general purpose of animal sacrifices as well as how we ought to view them in light of the issue as death what does that mean for us today we saw that animal sacrifices will be performed again in the future why not now after all they are part of the Torah and the tour remains binding on believers right so why do we not perform animal sacrifices today first as we hope we have made clear we believe animal sacrifices have not been abolished there is no indication in the New Testament that they've been abolished or made void plus they still serve a valid function and will again in the future so the reason we don't do animal sacrifices today is not because they've been abolished the answer is simply this we are not able to keep these aspects of the Torah the way God said to keep them right now here are a few points to consider first we are commanded to sacrifice only in Jerusalem the place where Yahweh placed his name Deuteronomy chapter 12 take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see but at the place Yahweh will choose in one of your tribes there you shall offer your burnt offerings and there you shall do all that I am commanding you these Commandments are to be facilitated by the Levites within a working temple or tabernacle in Jerusalem since there is no temple or tabernacle in Jerusalem and no functioning Levitical priesthood to facilitate carrying out such commandments there's simply no way to keep them to use an analogy the driving laws in the United States only applied to drivers if you don't have a driver's license you cannot keep the laws concerning speed limits stop signs etc in fact if you attempt to drive illegally that is without a license you would be a law breaker even if you drove below the speed limit and stopped at the stop signs so in this way by not driving you are obeying the law it's the same way with the animal sacrifices the entire framework for keeping the commandments doesn't exist right now forget the fact that we aren't licensed we don't even have a car there isn't even a road to drive on right now do you get the picture by not doing sacrifices without a temple you're in fact obeying the law of God a Torah commands us not to do sacrifices our own way it does require a tabernacle or temple with a functioning priesthood so by not doing sacrifices in the absence of a temple and functioning priesthood one is actually obeying the Torah so what do we do well the sacrificial system and Levitical priesthood will be re-established during the millennial reign after the Messiah is coming so in the meantime we do our best to keep the parts of the Torah we're able to keep while anticipating the day we can observe the Torah more fully for more on this we might suggest our blog post what do I do our situation today is really no different than when Israel was an exile in Babylon the fact that they couldn't keep the commandments pertaining to the sacrificial system didn't know fi the commandments it just meant that those Commandments were on pause until they could return to the land rebuild the temple and start keeping them again in conclusion animal sacrifices are all about having a relationship with God on earth through the temple service in addition to bringing about ritual purity they teach us about the holiness of God and are also a foreshadow of God's plan of redemption through Messiah they haven't been done away with there's no way to perform them right now due to the fact that there's no temple in Jerusalem but they will be reestablished during the millennial reign finally animal sacrifices do not detract from your schewe sacrifice because they were never given to accomplish that which only issues work on the cross could accomplish we hope that this introductory teaching helps with understanding some of the basic and common questions surrounding this subject we pray that you've been blessed by this teaching and remember continue to test everything shallow [Music] it is because of you our generous supporters who make it possible to offer these 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