Exodus 27:1 – 8 “You are to build an altar of acacia wood. The altar must be square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high. (The altar was approximately 7.5 feet in length and width, and 4.5 feet high (2.3 meters in length and width, and 1.4 meters high) Make a horn on each of its four corners, so that the horns are of one piece, and overlay it with bronze.
Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots for removing ashes, its shovels, its sprinkling bowls, its meat forks, and its firepans. Construct for it a grate of bronze mesh, and make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the mesh. Set the grate beneath the ledge of the altar, so that the mesh comes halfway up the altar. Additionally, make poles of acacia wood for the altar and overlay them with bronze. The poles are to be inserted into the rings so that the poles are on two sides of the altar when it is carried.
Construct the altar with boards so that it is hollow. It is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain.”
The first recorded animal sacrifice in the Bible was made by Abel, who brought “the best portions of the firstborn of his flock.” When men wanted to “cut covenant” with one another, they would slaughter animals, split the carcasses, and then walk around the carcasses, proclaiming that something similar should happen to them, should they violate the covenant. But in the ancient world, human sacrifice was also universal.
Human sacrifice was practiced for a variety of reasons – building a new city, gaining success in war, etc. But the biggest need for sacrifices was already built into human nature: Sin. Blood sacrifices were necessary to make atonement for the sins of the people.
According to Dennis Prager, there are several important things to notice about the biblical sacrifices:
1. Only certain portions of the animals were actually used in the burnt offerings. The rest of the meat was eaten by human beings; they were, essentially public religious slaughtering.
2. In the world of the Torah, the killing and eating of animals was taken extremely seriously and imbued with sanctity. Moreover, the animals sacrificed were not subjected to the cruelties of modern slaughterhouses or factory farming, the fate of the large majority of animals eaten in our time.
3. Animal sacrifice was, of course, an immeasurable moral advance over human sacrifice, which was universal in the ancient world – another example of how the Torah changed the world.
4. The Torah repeatedly prohibits human sacrifice, which God declares a moral abomination.
5. Unlike meat – eating generally, sacrifices were performed for noble goals: to atone for sins and to come closer to a moral God. The Hebrew word for sacrifice, korban, comes from the Hebrew word for “close” (karov). The sacrificial system is predicated on the notion we must give up – sacrifice – something precious as a way of getting closer to God. The giving up of an animal , and not just any animal, but a very fine one – the best of one’s herd, or the best specimen one could buy, which had a significant practical and financial value – constituted such a sacrifice.
APPLICATION: Nothing worthwhile comes without sacrifice! Nobody knows this better than the sleep – deprived parents of small children. Mothers who formerly prided themselves on being fashionable find tee shirts and knit pants with drawstrings have now become their favorite outfits. Fathers learn quickly to drape towels over their shoulders when burping their babies or face the prospect of wearing baby spit – up to work.
Husbands and wives routinely make sacrifices for each other and find that as they do so, their relationships become far richer and deeper. In February 2008 my husband Bob required heart surgery. As the stretcher on which Bob was lying was being pushed into the operating room, Bob’s last words to me were, “I love you! If I die during the operation, go back to Saboba!” I have nursed Bob through several operations, and I don’t regret a bit of it! By the same token, Bob has had to run drip fluid (IV’s) on me and give me injections when I have suffered with typhoid. Bob’s scariest moments came when I contracted cholera from infected water at a chop bar and he had to cope with the vomiting, diarrhea, and dehydration that ensued.
It is ironic that while we will give up all kinds of things for friends and family, we hesitate to sacrifice our time and talents and lives to God. As Creator and Lord of the Universe, God deserves our highest praise and our highest honor. There is no greater honor that we can pay God than to give our lives to Him and to continually seek to do His will.
PRAYER: Father God, thank you for loving us and caring for us. Help us to realize that no sacrifice is too great to make for you because you always repay us with far more than we have given in the first place. Thank you that because of Jesus’s death and resurrection, we no longer have to slaughter animals to atone for our sins. Help us to fully give our lives to you. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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