Under the Old Testament Law, Jews were required to go to the Temple several times a year. There were various sacrifices described in the book of Leviticus (and other books), These required a tabernacle or Temple and priests (sons of Aaron) to offer the sacrifices. For example:
Leviticus 17:3-4 What man soever there be of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or that killeth it out of the camp, and bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering unto the LORD before the tabernacle of the LORD; blood shall be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people:
These are found in:
- Leviticus 1 – Cattle offered at the Tabernacle for atonement by Aaron’s sons
- Leviticus 3 – Peace offering offered at the Tabernacle by Aaron’s sons
- Leviticus 4 – Peace offering offered at the Tabernacle by Aaron’s sons
- Leviticus 7 – Peace offering offered at the Tabernacle by Aaron’s sons
- Leviticus 8 – Moses modeled the sacrifice by performing it
- Leviticus 9 – Burnt offering for peace
- Leviticus 10 – Sacrifice offered at the Holy Place
- Leviticus 17 – Offering at the Tabernacle by Aaron’s sons
- Leviticus 22 – Peace offering
- Leviticus 23 – Only clean animals can be sacrificed
There were various functions of the sacrifices.
Leviticus 7:37 This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations, and of the sacrifice of the peace offerings;
The tabernacle was replaced by Solomon’s Temple.
1 Kings 6:1 And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.
These sacrifices required the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sins.
Modern Day Jews
The second temple was destroyed in 70 AD. The modern-day Jew has no temple to offer sacrifices in and thus no way to get the forgiveness of sins. This is part of why they desire to rebuild the temple and restore the sacrificial system.
The New Testament View
The book of Hebrews is about this conundrum.
Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
The old temple was going to be destroyed in 70 AD and Paul saw it as passing away in his day.
Hebrews 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
Jesus is the High Priest who offered Himself as the sacrifice for sin. His body is the new tabernacle.
Hebrews 9:11-15 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
In the New Covenant, Aaron’s sons, the Levites are replaced by the priests who offer the Holy Oblation. This is a bloodless sacrifice since Jesus already shed His blood for our sins.
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