Many people have wondered how God was honored by an animal being killed. The key to understanding this sacrificial system is not found in the animals or in the gifts of grain, oil or wine that were used in various Old Testament sacrifices. Rather, the key is this: God’s holiness requires that sin not be ignored. Someone must pay the price to remove the offense. Once the price is paid, the sin can be forgiven. Sacrifices were God’s way of teaching this spiritual truth to his people.
Another important concept is that the innocent can substitute for the guilty. God allowed a sin payment to be made on behalf of someone else. In the Old Testament, these payments were animal or food sacrifices. When offered in faith, these pointed to the ultimate sacrifice: Christ’s death for the sins of the world.
10 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, my God.’”
8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Sacrifices also involved offering something valuable as a token of gratitude to God. Just as today we give money or other gifts to acknowledge that God is the source of all we have, the people in Old Testament days offered God the best of their flocks and fields to give thanks for his provision.
Finally, the sacrificial system also performed an important community function. Just as the New Testament church celebrated the Lord’s Supper (honoring Christ’s sacrifice) as part of “love feast”, the Old Testament sacrifices were often performed as part of community meals. Far from being a wasteful destruction of animals, the food offered as a sacrifice was generally eaten, either by the priests or by the entire worshiping community.
