Sacrifice

The peculiar features of each kind of sacrifice are referred to under their respective heads. I. (A) ORIGIN OF SACRIFICE.—The universal prevalence of sacrifice shows it to have been primeval, and deeply rooted in the instincts of humanity. Whether it was first enjoined by an external command, or whether it was based on that sense of sin and lost communion with God which is stamped by his hand on the heart of man, is a historical question which cannot be determined.

(B) ANTE-MOSAIC HISTORY OF SACRIFICE.—In examining the various sacrifices recorded in Scripture before the establishment of the law, we find that the words specially denoting expiatory sacrifice are not applied to them. This fact does not at all show that they were not actually expiatory, but it justified the inference that this idea was not then the prominent one in the doctrine of sacrifice. The sacrifices of Cain and Abel are called minehah, tend appear to have been eucharistic. Noah’s, (Genesis 8:20) and Jacob’s at Mizpah, were at the institution of a covenant; and may be called federative.

In the burnt offerings of Job for his children (Job 1:5) and for his three friends ch. (Job 42:8) we for the first time find the expression of the desire of expiation for sin. The same is the case in the words of Moses to Pharaoh. (Exodus 10:26) Here the main idea is at least deprecatory. (C) THE SACRIFICES OF THE MOSAIC PERIOD.—These are inaugurated by the offering of the Passover and the sacrifice of (Exodus 24:1) ... The Passover indeed is unique in its character but it is clear that the idea of salvation from death by means of sacrifice is brought out in it with a distinctness before unknown.

The law of Leviticus now unfolds distinctly the various forms of sacrifice: (a) The burnt offering : Self-dedicatory. (b) The meat offering : (unbloody): Eucharistic. (c) The sin offering ; the trespass offering: Expiatory. To these may be added, (d) The incense offered after sacrifice in the holy place and (on the Day of Atonement) in the holy of holies, the symbol of the intercession of the priest (as a type of the great High Priest) accompanying and making efficacious the prayer of the people. In the consecration of Aaron and his sons, (Leviticus 8:1) ... we find these offered in what became ever afterward their appointed order.

First came the sin offering, to prepare access to God; next the burnt offering, to mark their dedication to his service; and third the meat offering of thanksgiving. Henceforth the sacrificial system was fixed in all its parts until he should come whom it typified. (D) POST-MOSAIC SACRIFICES.—It will not be necessary to pursue, in detail the history of the Poet Mosaic sacrifice, for its main principles were now fixed forever.

The regular sacrifices in the temple service were— (a) Burnt offerings. 1, The daily burnt offerings, (Exodus 29:38-42) 2, The double burnt offerings on the Sabbath, (Numbers 28:9,10) 3, The burnt offerings at the great festivals; (Numbers 26:11; Numbers 29:39) (b) Meat offerings . 1, The daily meat offerings accompanying the daily burnt offerings, (Exodus 29:40,41) 2, The shewbread, renewed every Sabbath, (Leviticus 24:6,9) 3, The special meat offerings at the Sabbath and the great festivals, (Numbers 28:1; Numbers 29:1) ... 4, The first-fruits, at the Passover, (Leviticus 23:10-14) at Pentecost, (Leviticus 23:17-20) the firstfruits of the dough and threshing-floor at the harvest time. (Numbers 15:20,21; 26:1-11) (c) Sin offerings . 1, Sin offering each new moon (Numbers 28:15) 2, Sin offerings at the passover, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets and Tabernacles, (Numbers 28:22,30; 29:5,16,19,22,25,28,31,34,38) 3, The offering of the two goats for the people and of the bullock for the priest himself, on the Great Day of Atonement.

(Leviticus 16:1) ... (d) Incense . 1, The morning and evening incense (Exodus 30:7,8) 2, The incense on the Great Day of Atonement. (Leviticus 16:12) Besides these public sacrifices, there were offerings of the people for themselves individually. II. By the order of sacrifice in its perfect form, as in (Leviticus 8:1) ... it is clear that the sin offering occupies the most important: place; the burnt offering comes next, and the meat offering or peace offering last of all. The second could only be offered after the first had been accepted; the third was only a subsidiary part of the second.

Yet, in actual order of time it has been seen that the patriarchal sacrifices partook much more of the nature of the peace offering and burnt offering, and that under the raw, by which was “the knowledge of sin,” (Romans 3:20) the sin offering was for the first time explicitly set forth. This is but natural that the deepest ideas should be the last in order of development. The essential difference between heathen views of sacrifice and the scriptural doctrine of the Old. Testament is not to be found in its denial of any of these views. In fact, it brings out clearly and distinctly the ideas which in heatheni