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Sacrifice in the Old Testament

by Jerry Ousley  
3/02/2018 / Christian Living

            Sacrifice; in its truest definition it means to “give up something of value.”  It could be that you had to sell something of value for a much lesser price in order to get the money you needed.  It could mean that you gave a friend something you highly treasured as a gift of friendship.  It can also mean the offering of something to a deity.

            There have been times I have made sacrificial gifts in my life, but honestly not as much as I probably should have.  I suppose one of the biggest sacrifices occurred a year or so after our marriage.  This was in the late 70’s and when Deb and I got married she was driving a 1969 Camaro and I had a 1969 Malibu which was the dressed down version of a Chevy Chevelle.  Both vehicles, while not really muscle cars, had very popular body styles and would be extremely valuable by today’s standards.  However then they were just our cars.  Deb and I both worked for the US Shoe Factory in Crothersville and one morning she walked over to where I was working and said, “Jerry, I believe the Lord has put something on my heart to do but if it is really His will I am asking that He show it to you too.”  She walked back to her machine and I began to seek the Lord.  Now, honestly, the Lord showed it to me before she ever left.  But it was going to require a sacrifice on my part and I had to take some time to struggle with it.  You see God spoke instantly to my heart telling me that we were to give my 1969 Malibu to a young couple at the church we attended then.  He had just gotten a new job, which was very badly needed, but had no transportation of his own.  God had showed Debbie and then me that we were to give that car to them.

            I really liked my car and didn’t want to give it up.  But I knew that God had orchestrated it.  I questioned, “God, why did you show her that we were to give my car?  Why not hers?  But it was useless to struggle with it so I walked back over to where she was working and said, “God told you that we were to give my Malibu to this couple, right?”  She said, “That’s it.”  So we did.  It was a big sacrifice for me because you see I had asked God for that car several years before and He allowed me to get it for an extremely good price.  It was paid for and debt free.  But this was His will and honestly God blessed us for our obedience over the years.  But I can’t take credit for it because honestly inside I was kicking and screaming because we had to let it go!

            Sacrifice in the Old Testament always meant that a perfect and innocent animal (a goat, sheep, bull, or dove) had to give its life to atone for man’s sin.  It had to be an animal without blemish and so a prized possession.  Even though animal sacrifice had begun immediately after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, its institution for the nation of Israel began shortly after the building of the tabernacle.  We read in Numbers 7:10-11 of the official beginning of the Judean Sacrificial system:  “Now the leaders offered the dedication offering for the altar when it was anointed; so the leaders offered their offering before the altar.  For the Lord said to Moses, ‘They shall offer their offering, one leader each day, for the dedication of the altar.’”  Here is what each offered:  one silver charger (or plate) weighing approximately 5.25 pounds, one silver bowl weighing approximately 2.75 pounds, both full of fine flour mixed with oil, one golden spoon weighing approximately ½ pound full of incense, one young bull, one ram, and one yearling lamb for the burnt offering, one young goat for the sin offering, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five yearling lambs for the peace offering.  Each of the twelve tribes offered these same things in turn for twelve days.

            This marked the official beginning of the sacrificial system in Israel and was only for the dedication of the altar.  There was also a daily burnt offering after that and each time someone sinned they were required to bring a sacrifice to atone for their sin.  Remember, at the beginning of this system there were 600,000 men besides women, children and the mixed multitude of people who had left Egypt with them.  Can you even begin to imagine the large number of innocent animals that lost their lives in the course of a year because of the sin of mankind?

            We no longer need to sacrifice innocent animals because of the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  We will continue with this in the next article.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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