In my last post I pointed out what should be obvious to any
evangelical Christian or cursory reader of the book of Hebrews: that the Old
Testament sacrificial system neither disposed once-and-for-all with the question of sin from God’s
perspective, nor did it clear the conscience of the worshipers.
So what WERE the sacrifices for then?
1. The Upkeep of the Priesthood
The Food of the Priests
To say that sacrifices are “for” the upkeep of the priests
is to sort of beg a major question. I mean, it would be silly to
initiate a system of sacrifice for the sole purpose of taking care of those who
serve in it, wouldn’t it? It would be like starting a business for the sole
purpose of paying the employees.
So perhaps this is not so much a “purpose” of the sacrifices
as a practical, well-designed benefit of the sacrificial system.
We may forget that, to those who do not read the Old
Testament regularly, the sacrifices may appear to be nothing more than a
spectacular waste of useful livestock. What may not be instantly recognized is
that, with a few specific and carefully noted exceptions, the vast majority of
offerings and sacrifices were designated as the daily food of the priests and
the rest of the tribe of Levi who assisted in the service of the tabernacle.
Standards of Judgment
There was nothing wasteful about the sacrifices God
instituted ... though, frankly, this is the service of God we are talking about. If God, hypothetically, commanded his people to incinerate all their livestock in one fell swoop on a bonfire the size of an airport parking lot, who are we to complain? He is God, after all. What is the concept of “waste” in importance, really, compared to the imperative of worshiping God? This sort of unspiritual thinking was what prompted the
disciples to complain about “waste” when a woman anointed the Savior’s head with expensive ointment, and what prompted Judas to betray him.
God is God, and is not to be judged by our mortal standards if we are wise. He is beyond our reason, but he is never unreasonable, which is why Abraham could declare “Shall not the judge of all the earth
do right?”
The answer is a resounding “Of course!”
A Practical Secondary Purpose
That said, there really was a very practical side to the sacrifices. God, though everything belongs to him, actually asked for very little from Israel. Most of what he instructed them to give him actually benefited and provided for their own Jewish brothers. So animals that would have been killed and eaten in the ordinary
course of life now served a practical secondary purpose in addition to the
spiritual purpose of making atonement for the Israelite who offered them: They allowed
the priests and their assistants to remain entirely devoted to the work of God
without having to worry about where their next meal was coming from.
The “holy things”, the offerings by fire, apart from the portion designated for God on the altar, were for the
priests, the
Levites who assisted, and their entire households, including any servants they might have.
“The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the Lord’s food offerings as their inheritance. They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them.”
The only restriction on the consumption of the offerings was
that they were not, under any circumstances, to be eaten by “laymen”.
Just as today, if we send a gift to a missionary or other
servant of God, we may quite legitimately say we are “giving to the Lord”, so
in Israel, giving to Jehovah, in most cases, effectively meant supporting the
priesthood he had instituted.
Dysfunctionality and Decline
In the book of Nehemiah, reforms were necessary because the
service of the temple had fallen into disarray. Nehemiah discovered that the
Levites and temple singers who did the work were not receiving the portions of
the offerings designated to them under the Law. Seeing this, the people had quite
rightly stopped giving. Until Nehemiah restored things to the way God had
originally intended, the temple service was rendered
dysfunctional.
Those who serve the Lord full time today are in the same
position as the priests and Levites of Israel in terms of being dependent on
the spiritual offerings and sacrifices of the people of God. While we do not
tithe today, as Israel did, and while God will always take care of his own servants
regardless of the dysfunctionality and decline of churches and the disinterest
of Christians, our ability to fellowship with the Lord, enjoy his spiritual
blessings and the rewards of giving to him can be
significantly curtailed by failure to take care of his servants.
It is worth remembering that giving to those who serve the
Lord is giving to him.
Next: More on what the sacrifices WERE for
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