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Before the fall man lived in blessed unity with God. This unity was destroyed by sin, and the fellowship between God and man was disturbed, thought not entirely abolished. In the punishment which God inflicted upon the sinners, He did not withdraw His mercy from men; and before driving them out of paradise, He gave them clothes to cover the nakedness of their shame, by which they had first of all become conscious of their sin. Even after the expulsion He still manifest Himself to them, so that they were able once more to draw near to Him and enter into fellowship with Him. This fellowship (NOT forgiveness) they sought through the medium of sacrifices, in which they gave a visible expression not only to their gratitude towards God for His blessing and His grace, but also to their supplication for the further continuance of His divine favor. It was in this sense that both Cain and Abel offered sacrifices [burnt offerings and NOT sin offerings…remember?], thought not with the same motives or in the same state of heart toward God. In this sense of fellowship and not forgiveness Noah also offered sacrifice [burnt offerings and NOT sin offerings…remember?]. After Noah’s deliverance from the flood; something changed in the offering of sacrifices. Whereas the sons of Adam offered their sacrifices to God from the fruit of their labor, in the tilling of the ground and the keeping of sheep, Noah presented his burnt offering from the clean cattle and birds that had been shut up with him in the ark (those animals would from that time forward be assigned to man as food…Gen. 9:3). Noah was probably led to make this selection by the command of God to take with him into the ark not one or more pairs, but 7 of every kind of clean beasts. Noah may have discerned in this an indication of the divine will, that the 7th animal of every description of clean beast and bird should be offered in sacrifice to the Lord, for His gracious protection from destruction by the flood. Also notice the distinction of “clean and unclean” foods long before the Sinai experience. Moses, in Leviticus revelation, also received a still further intimation as to the meaning of the animal sacrifices. We see this in the prohibition which God appended to the permission to make use of animals as well as green herbs for food: "flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat " (Gen. 9:4-5). This prohibition is because the flesh still contained the blood as the animal's soul (the soul lives in the blood of the animal). In this there was already an intimation, that in the bleeding sacrifice the soul/life of the animal was given up to God with the blood;and therefore; that by virtue of its blood as the vehicle of the soul, animal sacrifice was the most fitting means of representing the surrender of the human soul to God. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! You will quickly come to see that the “blood” accomplished nothing; rather it was a picture of the soul of the person who brought the animal to the altar.
It is not the "blood" but the "soul" in the blood which demonstrates surrender to God and it is later to be understood as seen as placed on the altar where we see the "soul of the offerer of sacrifices" on the altar in lieu of the animal which is but a substitute for the person bringing the animal for sacrifice. The animal was literally the extension of the person bringing the sacrifice. God would not have a human sacrifice his life and blood and place it upon the altar as a demonstration of “communion” and “fellowship” with God; instead the animal was the extension of the person’s life. The person bringing the animal had fed, groomed, and cared for the animal usually. It was part of his life and his life and energy had been invested into the care of the animal. So when the "soul” of the animal was taken and offered upon the altar in the release and placing of the animal’s blood on the altar, then the person by proxy was represented on the altar in communion with God as well. Understand the animal was innocent having never sinned. This was supposed to be a picture of the spiritual position of the person bringing the sacrifice. The person bringing the sacrifice was ALREADY to have repented of his sin, confessed his sin, prayed, and made restitution to his fellowman if needed BEFORE he ever brought the animal to the altar. Then when he had done these spiritual necessities PRIOR to bringing the animal to the altar, then the person’s soul was AT-THAT-MOMENT (atonement) right with God. He was forgiven and his repentance, confession, prayer, and restitution had accomplished for him atonement PRIOR to the animal being offered. “At that moment” his soul was again in right standing and relationship with God. In order to make such a declaration to the world and his fellowman, as well as to God, then he would take an animal and it would be slain and its blood placed on the altar. In so doing, the animal was a CORRECT PICTURE of the spiritual state of the person {if he had previously before bringing the animal repented, confessed, prayed, made restitution if possible, given alms, etc.] making the sacrifice for the animal’s soul (in the animal's blood) was on the altar in communion with God and was NOW a true picture of the sacrificer’s soul in communion with God if had repented as stated above before he came to the altar!
Besides this, if anyone wanted to eat meat, the animal’s soul had to be given back to God before the flesh could be consumed. So you see in the sacrificial system there were two dynamics at work: atonement and the conditions necessary to eat meat which also contained the Divine image which had to be given by to God.
Answer for yourself: Did you notice we have not mentioned “sin offerings” yet?
What I just described in the sacrificial system is an aspect of the death of Yeshua that most likely you have never even considered. This truth may possibly have been only dimly surmised by Noah and his sons; but it must have been clearly revealed to the patriarch Abraham when God demanded the sacrifice of his only son, with whom his whole heart was bound up, as a proof of his obedience of faith, and after he had attested his faith in his readiness to offer this sacrifice, supplied him with a ram to offer as a burnt-offering [burnt offerings and NOT sin offerings…remember?], instead of his own (Gen. 22). In this the truth was practically revealed to him, that the true God did not require human sacrifice from His worshipers, but the surrender of heart/soul and the denial of the natural life, even thought it should amount to a submission to death itself. This act of surrender was to be perfected in the animal’s sacrifice; and that it was only when presented with these motives that sacrifice would be pleasing to God. Yeshua was willing to die if need be for the kingdom to come. The problem was that Israel did not merit the kingdom; even during the 40 years following his death. Simply said: no kingdom, no King!
That means prophecies not fulfilled. So we wait!
The word "korban" is commonly translated either "sacrifice" or "offering", but the truth is that the English language does not possess a word that accurately expresses the concept contained in the word. The word "sacrifice" implies that the person bringing it is required to deprive himself of something in order to satisfy someone else's need, but God finds no satisfaction in inflicting pain or deprivation upon His children. The word "offering" is closer to the mark but it too fails to convey the true meaning of a "korban". "Offering" implies that the Recipient of the gift must be appeased, that He requires a tribute that will somehow appease His wrath or make Him receptive to the entreaties of a supplicant, or that He has a need that can only be satisfied by someone other than Himself. As if God required our gifts! "If you have acted righteously, what will you have given Him! (Job 35:7); God does not become enriched by man's accomplishments.
The Hebrew word itself provides the answer. The root of the meaning is "to come near." Again the idea carries the concept of fellowship. The person bringing an offering does so in order to come closer to God, to elevate his level of spirituality thereby approaching God in the Spirit.
Now remember the person brought the animal as a picture of himself in that through his repentance, confession, prayer, and restitution he was “coming near” to God and the sacrifice of the animal and the placing of the animal’s soul on the altar was a demonstration that he, the person bringing the sacrifice, had ALREADY “drawn near to God” and the soul of the animals was a true picture of himself NOW since repenting previously before coming to the altar. The offering was a picture of that spiritual fact to all the world as well as for God to see!
When Adam was deposited in the Garden of Eden, his first responsibility was to work it and guard it (Gen. 2:15). That means that Adam was commanded to plant, work, cultivate; everything that was necessary to keep the Garden as a Paradise. Before Adam's sin, man had no need to be a peasant; everything grew for him at God's command, with no need for him to exert himself in any way. It was only after his sin that he was expelled from Eden and required to earn his bread through the sweat of his brow.
How then was he to work and guard Eden? Through the study of Torah and the performance of positive and negative commandments. His livelihood would come in return for his obedience to God's will. God will always respond to man's righteousness by blessing his material efforts.
Adam's mission was to make himself an offering in his lifetime, by dedicating himself unreservedly to God. On God's Throne of Glory, there is an image of a man (Ez. 1:10). Every human being has his own image above, his ideal spiritual self, which represents his goal and his potential. Man's soul is placed in an earthly body so that he can surmount the challenges of material life and raise himself up to his personal, heavenly self; to unite his earthly self with his higher self. Just as everyone has a body and a soul, and his mission is to triumph in the eternal struggle of body versus soul, so, too, many must struggle to live up to the summons of his higher self.
Man is religious yet he sins! How can he defy the Creator he believe in? He is kind and generous, yet he is sometimes mean and stingy. He is moral, but has lapses in conduct. Whatever man is, he is often inconsistent, and if he is honest with himself, he knows that he is far from living up to his inner image. He wants his body to come closer to his soul; on a yet higher level, he should also want his soul to live up to its counterpart on high.
Similarly, there is a Temple in heaven that corresponds to the Temple on earth. The masters of Kabbalah teach that the good deeds of the people of God accumulate to build a spiritual replica of that heavenly Temple, and when there are enough such good deeds, the heavenly Temple will come down to the Temple Mount, signaling the end of the exile and the beginning of the perfect world foretold by the prophets. This is similar to the striving of the individual soul. There is a higher ideal we must see to capture in our mundane lives. Possibly it is best expressed by the Psalmist: "the heavens are the Lord's, but the earth He has given to mankind (Psm. 115:16). The heavens are already heavenly; God does not need man to improve upon them. But He has given us the earth that we might make it heavenly, as well. God gave mankind the Torah as instruction to bring heaven to earth through obedience of God's will as expressed in His living Word. This is best expressed through acts of Loving Kindness (Gemilut Hasadim) and Repairing of the World (Tikkun Olam). Adam was the offering, and for him to devote anything less than his maximum to God would have been to steal his Divinely conferred potential and misappropriate it for himself. The sin of eating from the Tree of Knowledge was such a misappropriation because he would be flouting the will of God. The truest offering is when the owner brings "himself" to God, making himself and his desires subservient to the teachings and guidelines of the Torah. The symbolism of the offerings is based on this concept; that the animal is secondary; that is but an indication of what its owner feels and toward what he strives.
The function and purpose of the offerings are not concepts that man can grasp rationally. Especially in modern times when anything not measurable, observable, or replicable is questioned and denied, the idea of offerings is not an easy one to understand. It is necessary, therefore, to understand that they and their efficacy are manifestations of God's plan and wisdom. They are reality, even though we have never seen them and have no personal experience through which to know their potency.
We cannot understand why the slaughter of a sanctified animal, the placing of its blood and the burning of its flesh on the Altar; why these acts should bring God's Presence down to earth (accomplishes fellowship). Had the Jewish people been asked about the possibility of this happening before they had seen it, perhaps even they would have been skeptical. But they saw it happen! They saw the cloud of God's glory descend upon the Tent of Meeting. They saw a heavenly fire descend to their Altar and remain there for hundreds of years. They saw a Divine glow on Moses' face. To them, these were demonstrable, visible, tangible facts.
This is incomprehensible to our rational, scientific minds. But so was the splitting of the atom to rational minds a hundred years ago.
Various reasons for the offerings are given by classic commentators. The reason for the offerings is so profound that it is beyond human comprehension and the best efforts of the greatest of Jewish thinkers can yield only a drop in the ocean of God's intent.
The offerings were seen to elevate three parts of every human deed: thought, speech, and action. When a person sins and then brings an offering, all three of those elements are used to take the sinful use to which he had previously put them, and transform it into the instrument of doing God’s will. The person bringing the offering performs the commandment of leaning, by placing his hands on its head and leaning on it, thereby dedicating his strength and activity to God. He purifies his thought and intentions, by confessing his sin, pronouncing the spiritual goal that he hopes to attain, or uttering praises to God. As a further way of purging his sinful thoughts, the innards of the animal; representing the human organs that are the seat of desire and through, are burned on God's Altar. In the case of an elevation-offering, which is completely burned, the animal's feet symbolize the hands and feet with which man ran and acted to defy his Creator. The animal's blood (containing its soul), representing man's soul, was placed on the Altar (notice it is the soul that is placed upon the Altar; just not the blood).
Let's look at Leviticus 17:11 in context in order to make sure we understand the “central” idea of the passage.
"And whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among you, who consumes any blood, I will set My face against that person who consumes blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life [SUBJECT OF THE SENTENCE] of the flesh is in the blood [DIRECT OBJECT OF THE SENTENCE], and I have given it [THE LIFE] to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood [LIFE IN THE BLOOD REMEMBER?] that makes an atonement for the soul. Therefore, I say to the children of Israel, `No one among you shall consume blood, nor shall any stranger who sojourns among you consume blood.'"
Answer for yourself: Did you know that “blood” was not the subject of the sentence? Did you notice what was? Did you understand that it was the “life” that was placed on the altar for atonement and not the blood?
In other words it is not the blood that atones, but the “soul” [LIFE] that atones..a life that repents, prays, confesses sin, makes restitution, gives alms, etc....!!!
Answer for yourself: Are you aware that as a Christian you whole understanding of the sacrificial system in the Bible is wrong because you have focused on “blood” for atonement instead of the “life” in the blood which is the real atoning agent?
Well not it does not say what you think it says. Why? You are reading most likely from your Christian Bible which is a very poor translation, or should I say, a very good mistranslation of Isaiah 53. This is why I spend so much time on the text. The Bible Jesus used and read did not read anything like our Christian Old Testament in hundreds of places. Isaiah is a good instance. Below is what the Palestinian Jewish Scriptures, called the Tanakh, reads for verse 10 of Isaiah 53:
Isa. 53:10 states “ HaShem desired to oppress him and He afflicted him; if his soul would acknowledge guilt…”
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. (KJV)
Simply said, this Christian translation has been “Jesusized” by having the concept of guilt removed, for in Christian “theology” Jesus can have no guilt and many try to make him the subject of the passage when the real uncorrupted Hebrew Scripture define the suffering servant as the corporate nation of Israel and not one individual
Back to the subject at hand.
In one of the greatest passages in the Bible, we are told by Isaiah the prophet that if the “soul” of the “suffering servant” would acknowledge guilt…confess sin, pray, repent...
Answer for yourself: What do you do when you acknowledge guilt?
You confess and then repent. This is the subject of the verse. You literally turn around your “life”. Your life changes direction; from sin to righteousness. You no longer continue your sinister ways. Now you can see how such a life, after repentance and confession of sin, was understood, even as the Christian Bibles say: “soul/life an offering for sin”! One’s life, when turned to God and away from sin, was the atonement that Leviticus 17 speaks about.
Answer for yourself: Could we have missed this understanding when looking at the death of Jesus or, as Isaiah said, the martyrdoms of millions of Israelites (remember Jesus is paradigm of all Jews)?
While this procedure (placing the animal’s soul on the alter in substitute for yours) is being accomplished with one's offering, the sacrificer meditates upon his sin, for the offering service teaches him graphically that he has sinned against God with body and soul. He contemplates that justice would have dictated that his human body by burned on the altar as a penalty for sin and his soul required by God in lieu of the animal’s blood be placed upon it. It is only God's graciousness that permits the animal to become his substitute. Then, parts of the offering are given to the Kohanim (priests/teachers), so that those who dedicate their lives to study and teach the Torah are sustained through him and so that they will pray for him. It is an act of supreme graciousness that God is prepared to accept an offering from us instead of punishing us directly for our misdeeds. This is why the offerings are described throughout Leviticus as a satisfying aroma to God, because God is pleased when His children repent and seek to change their lives for the better.
When one brings an offering with such noble thoughts he has truly made himself an offering. The Sages have said of one who brings a humble meal-offering, it is as if he had offered his own life upon the altar. He thereby raised his mundane desires and makes them worthy of being placed on the heavenly altar.
More to follow. Shalom.