There are many people today that do not understand the reasons for the sacrificial ceremonial system set up by Yehovah in the Scriptures. We are going to look and see how many in Israel missed the point anciently, and then we will touch on how many miss the point today. There will be two aspects that are involved with the “korbanot” or sacrifices in the Temple, the external and the internal. We are going to talk about both.
In Psa 50.8-15 we learn that God was not going to reprove the people about their sacrifices and ceremonies, because he gave them and they were continually before him. He is not addressing the external worship of the korbanot, they were doing them.
He is not going to take any animal out of their house or folds because every beast belongs to the Lord (Psa 24.1; Matt 6.26). He knows every bird and everything that moves in the field. If Yehovah was hungry, he would not tell the people because the world belonged to him, and he did not need to ask them for anything to satisfy himself, he does not eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of male goats.
He says to offer to God (along with the external worship of the sacrificial system) a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High with the right attitude of heart, faith, love, obedience and repentance. Then they could call upon him in the day of trouble and he would rescue them, and they would honor him.
The idea in these verses are not new. Isa 1.1-31 and Psa 51.15-19 talks about the same thing. The idea is this. The sacrificial system would appear brutal unless it is administered in an almost perfect religious environment. The people were missing the point, as people miss the point today. It is not the keeping of the Torah ceremonies that was the issue here, but what the people were putting into it. God looks at our desire to keep the Torah, not on our ability to keep every point of it perfectly.
The people in these verses did not have the heart, the essence, of what the commandment as even there for! The issue is this: the mundane performance of the Torah commands that were void of their deeper concerns of love, mercy, justice, obedience, and kindness towards God and man, was not what Yehovah required. The story Yeshua gave about the Good Samaritan clearly teaches this concept. Yehovah required the korbanot ceremonies along with a contrite heart. Without that, the sacrifices were a waste of time andvthat is why two Temples were destroyed. Whenever there are verses that seem to say that the Lord is against the sacrificial system, he is not, because they come from him, they are his ceremonies. The issue in whatever verse you come across is obedience and the condition of the heart intentions of the worshiper. Saul did not obey the Lord and offered korbanot, but Saul was to wait for Samuel. Samuel told him to obey is better than sacrifice because Saul had the wrong heart.
False teaching today says that “Jesus” came and because he died on the cross, the Temple and all the sacrifices were done away with. But Heb 9.9 says that the sacrifices are (present tense) a symbol for the present time, or the Olam Ha Zeh. For a proper understanding of Heb 9.1-28 we refer you to our study of the book of Hebrews on this website. The korbanot only sanctified the flesh because they were ceremonies, they did not save a person. Baptisms (plural because there are many types) are ceremonies, but we do them and they are for the sanctifying of the flesh or an object, they cannot save us or perfect our spirit/conscience. The Torah is full of ceremonies but they will not save us if we do them. That is why the death of Yeshua on the cross did not do away with the korbanot, because the korbanot could not take away sin, they were ceremonies that taught about the redemption. Yeshua offered animal sacrifices, Paul and the first-century believers offered animal sacrifices 30 years after Yeshua’s resurrection (Acts 21.15-26, 24.17). When Yeshua returns the korbanot ceremonies will be offered again in the Messianic Temple described in Ezekiel 40 through 48. Zech 14.16-21 says that people will come to Jerusalem to keep the festival of Sukkot, and if a nation does not come to Jerusalem, there will be no rain and there will be a plague. We do not offer sacrifices today because there is no Temple, no priesthood, and no holy vessels. But all that will change.
The issue with offering korbanot, and with keeping any commandment, is the heart and intentions of the person who is making the offering. The external conditions must line up with the proper internal conditions of the heart. When Yehovah spoke out in the Scriptures about their offerings, it was because their hearts were wrong. False teachings about the Torah and its role in the life of a believer has plagued people for thousands of years and it has infected the true interpretations of the words of Yeshua in the Gospels, the teachings of Paul, and all the writers of the Brit Chadasha.
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