June 23, 2010

Why Sacrifices?
Deuteronomy 15:19-23 (NLT)

“You must set aside for the LORD your God all the firstborn males from your flocks and herds. Do not use the firstborn of your herds to work your fields, and do not shear the firstborn of your flocks. 20 Instead, you and your family must eat these animals in the presence of the LORD your God each year at the place he chooses.

21 But if this firstborn animal has any defect, such as lameness or blindness, or if anything else is wrong with it, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God. 22 Instead, use it for food for your family in your hometown. Anyone, whether ceremonially clean or unclean, may eat it, just as anyone may eat a gazelle or deer. 23 But you must not eat the blood. You must pour it out on the ground like water." Deuteronomy 15:19-23 (NLT)

Pastor’s Blog

Do you ever wonder why blood, death, and sacrifice are foundational to Judeo-Christianity? Sometimes I think God instituted the sacrificial system, not so much as an immutable edict from eternity as an accommodation to humanity’s primitive way of honoring whatever god they believed in. Who knows. But this we do know. We know that Jesus, the creator of the world having come to earth, entered into our ugly mess, our murderous, selfish human societies and became the bloody sacrifice which most societies over all the earth deemed necessary for their atonement.

Today’s passage speaks of a first born, innocent, perfect, sacrifice. Indeed this was Jesus. The sacrificial system described and instituted in Torah, practiced over and over and over again teaches and reminds. It reminds that all comes from God and that when we give our best back to God we are anticipating more of His provision. Finally in the New Testament the fullest and most beautiful provision of all, was the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for the forgiveness of our sin. I find verse 23 interesting. According to Leviticus, the life is in the blood. Kosher means not eating the blood. This verse says don’t consume it. Yet, Jesus instituted the opposite, “this is the new covenant in my blood, whenever you drink of it . . .”. As Jesus allowed Himself to be drained of life, he tells us to consumed and be filled with his life.

The issue is always the same. It’s not about ritual. It’s about life. Yet we need the scriptures because the Life God offers has too many imposters.

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