Lord's Day Devotion - OT Sacrifice and Sacrifice (Hebrews)

 As a noun, the word sacrifice is the act of slaughtering an animal, person or possession as an offering to a deity.  As the Israelites trod throughout the wilderness and even when they settled in their Promised Land, they offered up many such sacrifices.  These we read about in the Old Testament (OT) and they serve as foreshadows of what Jesus has done for us, as we learn from reading the New Testament (NT).

When a person gives up something, such as their lunch for the benefit of another person, they are sacrificing their food - this is sacrifice as a verb.  Sacrificing something does and should hurt or pinch the sacrificer in some way; otherwise it isn't sacrifice.  For instance, the giver of that lunch may well go hungry themself.

Back to the Israelites.  Each time one of them sinned, they had to bring an animal like a bull, lamb, goat or pigeons or doves to the OT Tabernacle.  The priest would help them sacrifice it on the altar of burnt offerings.  It was the case of one sin then one animal sacrifice, over and over again to atone for each respective sin.  The blood of the animal had to be shed, otherwise the sin could not be paid for.

Each animal had to be in absolutely perfect condition.  They couldn't use old or sick animals nor one with a wound.  It had to be without defect.  They were being sacrificed to God their Heavenly Father so they needed to give their best in order to make up for their sins.

This is called OT Sacrifice for sins.  Once we get to the NT times, things became different.  It is what the OT sacrifices had been leading up to....

Do you give of Your best for Your Master Jesus?

Father God, these constant sacrifices made for atonement of sin such as the Israelites had had to make, must have gotten very tiring.  However, I can see that if they'd been very serious and sincere they would still do it all, thus maintaining good relationship with You.  Thank You for these foreshadowing examples of what Jesus has done for us, as we learn from the NT.  

In Jesus' name I give You my thanks as on every given Lord's Day we reach for the bread and wine in remembrance of  Jesus' death and resurrection.  

Amen.

                                                      ~ERC  April 2024~

Based on Hebrews 9:6-10 and Leviticus 4 & 5.

Sing, Give of Your Best to the Master along with Reflection.