Page 45 - Biblical Theology Textbook - masters

Study Section 7: The Sacrificial System

7.1 Connect

The thought of taking a sweet innocent lamb, tying down its feet, and slitting its throat is
repulsive to me. We read in 2 Chronicles 7:5 that King Solomon offered a sacrifice of 22,000
head of cattle and 120,000 sheep in ONE DAY! That must have been a horrendous day as all
these animals were killed and burned before the alters of the Lord. Why would God find
pleasure in such things?

On sixteen different occasions in the book of Leviticus, an “aroma” is mentioned as something pleasing
to the Lord. Specifically, the aroma of a sacrifice is important to God. But the importance of a sacrifice’s
aroma is not the smell but what the smell represents—the substitutionary atonement for sin. God was
using this repulsive practice of slaughtering innocent animals to illustrate to Israel and all of mankind
what He was going to do to pay the penalty for sin. He planned to offer His only innocent, sinless Son, to
slay Him, shed His blood in an act equally repulsive as slaughtering thousand of animals. His shedding of
blood and terrible death was the only way to take away the sin of the world.

7.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to explain why the Law required sacrifices and what kind of sacrifices
where demanded by the Law.

2. The student should be able to why the Day of Atonement is such a significant holiday on the
Jewish calendar.

3. The student should be able to explain the importance of the blood sacrifice to have sins covered.

7.3 The Law Requires Sacrifices.

A huge part of the concept is redemption is the word, atonement. Remember, redemption is
the concept of paying the price to purchase a person that needs to escape their situation and
providing them freedom, such as purchasing a slave and freeing them. The important factor in
redemption is that a price must be paid which is greater than the value of the item purchased.
The purchase price is called atonement. According to the Father, the purchase price for buying
back humanity from sin was the shedding of perfect blood. And since God is the only perfect
person in the universe, He chose to pay the price.

Atonement involves two things: forgiveness from God from our sin and the declaration that our sin has
been removed from our account. On the Day of Atonement, the Jews were to kill a lamb or goat, and
sprinkle the blood on the Ark of Covenant before God, illustrating the forgiveness of sin by paying the
price of blood. The High Priest took a second goat and symbolically laid on it the sins of the people.
That goat was released to wander in the wilderness and was called a scapegoat. This was a symbol that
the sin was removed from the people and placed on the goat. Interesting? Let’s look at these
illustrations more carefully…

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