In light of the contents of Numbers Chapter 28, which deals with the Hebrew calendar of public sacrifices, I think the time is ripe to have a quick review of the animal sacrifices and their purposes.
So let’s get started!
First, there are four types of animal sacrifices as follows:
-The OLAH; the Burnt Offering
-The HATTA-AT; the Purification Offering (often translated as the “Sin Offering”)
-The ASHAM; the Reparation Offering (often translated as the “Guilt Offering”)
-The ZEVAH; the Peace Offering or sometimes called the “Free-will Offering“
Although there were major differences between each of the offerings, let’s examine those points that were the same for all these offerings.
There were three points of commonality as follows:
-The worshipper was to present the specified animal, lay hands on it, and then kill and butcher it according to set procedures
-After the animal was killed, the priest would sprinkle some of the blood of the animal on the great Bronze Altar
-Some or all of the animal was to be burned up on the altar. Since all sacrifices were to be burned up, in a sense, all sacrifices were a kind of “burnt offering”.
How much of the animal was burned up for each sacrifice?
–For the OLAH, the entire animal was burnt up on the altar fire. No one, neither priest nor worshipper was allowed to eat any part of this sacrifice.
–For the HATTA-AT, a portion of the animal was burned up and a portion of the animal was permitted to be eaten only by the priests
–For the ASHAM, a portion of the animal was burned up and a portion of the animal was permitted to be eaten only by the priests
–For the ZEVAH, certain specified parts of the animal were to be burned up on the altar and the other parts were given as food to the priests. However, the main distinguishing factor between this sacrifice and the others is that the worshipper was allowed to take home the largest portion of the barbecued animal for food for him and his family
How often was each sacrifice offered up?
-The OLAH was offered up every day and thus was considered the KING OF THE SACRIFICES
-The HATTA-AT was offered up frequently but not on a regular basis. Probably the event most connected to the HATTA-AT is that it was usually offered up when one’s purification period for uncleanliness ended.
-The ASHAM offering was rarely performed and was considered to be in somewhat of a special class because it was part of the atonement process for one who had committed a pretty serious sin such as blasphemy.
-The ZEVAH offering was performed often as there were many different uses for this sacrifice. Probably its most common use was after the completion of a vow. Another reason why this offering was so popular is because the worshipper got to keep a large portion of the meat of this sacrifice. Remember, by law, ALL ANIMALS had to be slaughtered at the Temple. One interesting point is that the wealthy had a tendency to offer up the ZEVAH often so they could satisfy their desire for meat on a daily basis. (The rich may have seemed quite pious by offering up the ZEVAH all the time, but all they wanted was some juicy lamb chops on a regular basis).
What was the meaning behind each type of animal sacrifice?
OLAH:
This sacrifice represented complete submission to HASHEM. The word OLAH itself, from the root AYIN-LAMED-HEH means “ascension” and is the same root as the word ALIYAH which can mean going up to Israel or ascending to the podium to read from the Torah Scroll. It is because this offering represents complete submission to God that ALL of it is burned up on the Altar; none of it may be eaten. What’s interesting is that this is the only sacrifice that gentiles were allowed to bring to the Temple (all the other sacrifices were reserved for Jews ONLY!).
HATTA-AT:
The purpose of the blood from a HATTA-AT sacrifice was to serve as a purifying agent. That is why the blood of the animal for this sacrifice was smeared around the Altar. Over time, the Altar and later the Temple became defiled because of men’s sins and had to be purified, otherwise a pure and holy God could not reside there. Remember, the only thing that can purify is blood.
ASHAM:
Otherwise known as the “Reparation Offering”, this sacrifice represents the payment of a debt for one’s sins. In other words, the shed blood of the animal is the “reparation” PAID to HASHEM for our offenses against Him.
ZEVAH:
Otherwise known as a “Peace Offering”, this sacrifice is all about expressing thanks or gratitude to God and acknowledging that HASHEM is the source of our well-being. The actual Hebrew term for this sacrifice is ZEVAH SHELAMIM. The word SHELAMIM is related to the word SHALOM which means “peace” and “wholeness”. One important thing to note is that this particular offering HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH SIN! So right here we destroy the gentile misunderstanding that the only purpose of the animal sacrifices was to atone for sin
To conclude, what do we get from all of this?
Simple.
We learn just how misguided Christianity is in so many of its basic assumptions as reflected in its doctrines.
These doctrines seem to do everything possible to prevent the believer from reading about God’s Laws and ordinances and seek to replace Scripture with misleading pithy little sayings like a “a sin is a sin is a sin“.
That’s a bunch of hogwash!
The truth is all sins are most definitely NOT the same in God’s eyes and the sacrificial system lets us know this in explicit detail.
Atonement and sin are large and complex matters.
Also contrary to popular gentile belief is that sacrifices were performed only to obtain forgiveness for sin.
Not true.
As I just demonstrated, some sacrifices were brought for the purpose of expressing thanks, love and gratitude to God and had nothing to do with sin.
Other sacrifices were used to cleanse a person of ritual impurity which also doesn’t really have anything to do with sin (sorry to beat a dead horse here).
You know what I find particularly funny.
Man, this one is classic.
You know how Christianity says that the first Passover Lambs the Israelites slaughtered in Egypt foreshadow Yeshua’s ultimate death for the sins of mankind on the cross.
Do you wanna know what the original Hebrew is for the Passover lambs that were slaughtered on that night in Egypt.
The original Hebrew is ZEVAH PESACH!
In other words, it was a “Gratitude” or “Thank You” offering.
It had nothing to do with sin.
For a full explanation of this, read this article.
Having said that though, yes it is true that there were some sacrifices that were prescribed for sins committed, BUT ONLY UNINTENTIONAL SINS.
The Levitical sacrificial system did NOT provide forgiveness for INTENTIONAL sins!
Another point we shouldn’t forget is that the sacrifices had no atoning effect unless the person making the offering sincerely repented of his actions before making the offering, and made restitution to any person harmed by his sin.
One wasn’t automatically forgiven of his unintentional sin just because he performed the action of sacrificing an animal.
The worshipper’s heart also had to be in the right place.
So, wondering what you might say exactly could be done for intentinal sins? Was there any way to be forgiven?