The Final
Sacrifice
What is a
sacrifice? The Hebrew word translated "sacrifice" is zabach- and
means to slaughter or to kill. Is the "killing" of an animal
still
required for Yahweh's people?
Mark 12:28-34
Then one of the scribes came, and
having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered
them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?" Yahshua
answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel,
the Yahweh our Elohim, Yahweh is one. 'And you shall love Yahweh your
Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and
with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. "And the
second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
There is no other commandment greater than these." So the scribe said
to Him, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is
one Elohim, and there is no other but He. "And to love Him with all the
heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the
strength, and to love one's
neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and
sacrifices." Now when Yahshua saw that he answered wisely, He
said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of Yahweh." But after
that no one dared question Him.
Are we striving
to get close to the kingdom? Yahweh's truth is not difficult to
grasp. Yahweh's word teaches us that the Father sent His only Son
as the Final Sacrifice. Yahshua's perfect sacrifice was the end
of all sacrifices. No sacrifice is greater. Animal
sacrifices cannot compare and are no longer required.
Amos 5:25-27
"Did you offer Me sacrifices and
offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? You also
carried Sikkuth your king and Chiun, your idols, the star of your gods,
which you made for yourselves. Therefore I will send you into captivity
beyond Damascus," says Yahweh, whose name is the Elohim of hosts.
Acts 7:41-43
"And they made a calf in those days,
offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own
hands. "Then Yahweh turned and gave them up to worship the host of
heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: 'Did you offer Me
slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the
wilderness, O house of Israel? You also took up the tabernacle of
Moloch, and the star of your elohim Remphan, images which you made to
worship; and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.'
Forty years the
children of Israel offered sacrifices to Yahweh. To what
end? They continued to sin. Are they our example? Or do we
want to follow the example of the righteous servants of Yahweh
named in Hebrews 11? (James 5:10)
Zephaniah 1:7-8
Be silent in the presence of the
Yahweh Elohim; for the day of Yahweh is at hand, for Yahweh has prepared a sacrifice;
he has invited His guests. "And it shall be, in the day of Yahweh's
sacrifice, that I will punish the princes and the king's children, and
all such as are clothed with foreign apparel.
Yahweh prepared
a sacrifice. Who was that sacrifice?
Ephesians 5:2
And walk in love, as Messiah also has
loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to
Yahweh for a sweet-smelling aroma.
It doesn't take
much study to determine Yahshua was the sacrifice which Yahweh the
Father prepared.
Hebrews 7:24-27
But He, because He continues forever,
has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to
the uttermost those who come to Yahweh through Him, since He always
lives to make intercession for them. For such a High Priest was fitting
for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and
has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those
high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then
for the people's, for this
He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
Yahshua is our
High Priest and He was the sacrifice once and for all.
Hebrews 9:11-28
But Messiah came as High Priest of the
good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not
made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of
goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place
once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of
bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean,
sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the
blood of Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself
without spot to Yahweh, cleanse your conscience from dead works to
serve the living Elohim? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the
new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the
transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may
receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where there is a
testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power
at all while the testator lives. Therefore not even the first covenant
was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to
all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and
goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the
book itself and all the people,
saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which Yahweh has commanded
you." Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all
the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law almost all things
are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no
remission. Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in
the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things
themselves with better
sacrifices than these. For Messiah has not
entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true,
but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of Yahweh for us;
not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the
Most Holy Place every year with blood of another-- He then would have
had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at
the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this
the judgment, so Messiah was
offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for
Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.
Before Yahshua,
many sacrifices were required, Yahshua was sacrified once and the other
sacrifices are no longer needed.
Hebrews 10:1-12
For the law, having a shadow of the
good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never
with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year,
make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to
be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more
consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of
sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and
goats could take away sins. Therefore, when He came into the world, He
said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have
prepared for Me. In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no
pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come-- in the volume of
the book
it is written of Me-- to do
Your will, O Yahweh.' "Previously saying,
"Sacrifice and offering,
burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did
not desire, nor had pleasure in them" (which are offered
according to
the law), then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O
Yahweh." He takes
away the first that He may establish the second. By
that will we have been set apart through the offering of the body of
Yahshua Messiah once for all. And every priest stands serving daily
and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away
sins. But this Man, after He
had offered one sacrifice for sins
forever, sat down at the right hand of Yahweh,
The sacrifices
of bulls and goats cannot take away sin, those sacrifices are useless
to the believer who has Yahwehs's Spirit. Yahweh does not
take pleasure in burnt offerings. It is is His will that they
were taken away. They were removed
for the greater sacrifice which takes away sins forever.
Hebrews 13:8-16
Yahshua Messiah is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various and strange
TORAH. For it is good that the heart be established by favor, not with
foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.
We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no
right to eat. For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought
into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the
camp. Therefore Yahshua also, that He might set apart the people with
His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to
Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no
continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Therefore by Him let us
continually offer the
sacrifice of praise to Yahweh, that is, the fruit
of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good
and to share, for with such
sacrifices Yahweh is well pleased.
With what
sacrifices is Yahweh well pleased?
1 Peter 2:1-10
Therefore, laying aside all malice,
all guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes,
desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed
you have tasted that Yahweh is gracious. Coming to Him as to a living
stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by Yahweh and precious, you
also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy
priesthood, to offer up
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to Yahweh
through Yahshua Messiah. Therefore it is also contained in the
Scripture, "Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame."
Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are
disobedient, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the
chief cornerstone," and "A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense."
They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were
appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of
Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once
were not a people but are now the people of Yahweh, who had not
obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
We are to offer
spiritual sacrifices.
Jeremiah 7:21-28
Thus says Yahweh of hosts,
the Elohim
of Israel: "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat.
"For I did not speak to your
fathers, or command them in the day that I
brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or
sacrifices. "But this
is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice,
and I will be your Elohim, and you shall be My people. And walk in all
the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.'
"Yet
they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and
the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.
"Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until
this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily
rising up early and sending them. "Yet they did not obey Me or incline
their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.
"Therefore you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not
obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.
"So you shall say to them, 'This is a nation that does not obey the
voice of Yahweh their Elohim nor receive correction. Truth has perished
and has been cut off from their mouth.
Yahweh's
initial command to the Israelites was to obey Him. This preceded
any command for animal sacrifice.
1 Samuel 15:22
Then Samuel said: "Has Yahweh as great
delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of
Yahweh? Behold, to obey is
better than sacrifice, and to heed than the
fat of rams.
Samuel
understood that obeying Yahweh was better than any animal sacrifice.
Psalms 40:5-8
Many, O Yahweh my Elohim, are Your
wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts toward us cannot
be recounted to You in order; if I would declare and speak of them,
they are more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering You did not
desire; my ears You have opened; burnt offering and sin offering
You
did not require. Then I said, "Behold, I come; in the scroll of the
book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my Elohim, and
Your law is within my heart."
Psalms 51:16-17
For You do not desire sacrifice,
or
else I would give it; you do not delight in burnt offering. The
sacrifices of Elohim are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite
heart-- these, O Elohim, You will not despise.
David also
understood what was important to Yahweh and it wasn't animal sacrifices.
Proverbs 21:3
To do righteousness and justice is
more acceptable to
Yahweh than sacrifice.
Solomon teaches
us that righteousness and justice are more acceptable to Yahweh than an
animal sacrifice.
Hosea 6:6
For I desire mercy and not sacrifice,
and the knowledge of Elohim more than burnt offerings.
Matthew 9:13
"But go and learn what this means: 'I
desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the
righteous, but sinners, to repentance."
Matthew
12:6-8
"Yet I say to you that in this place
there is One greater than the temple. "But if you had known what this
means, 'I desire mercy and
not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned
the guiltless. "For the Son of Man is Master even of the Sabbath."
Hosea taught us
what was important and the people didn't get it. Yahshua came and
told us to learn what it means. "Mercy not sacrifice". Are
we getting it?
Matthew 23:23
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have
neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and
faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.
What are the
weightier matters of the law? Justice, mercy and faith.
That's what's important to Yahweh.
Hosea 14:2
Take words with you, and return to
Yahweh. Say to Him, "Take away all iniquity; receive us graciously, for
we will offer the sacrifices
of our lips.
Jeremiah 33:11
'the voice of joy and the voice of
gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the
voice of those who will say: "Praise Yahweh of hosts, for Yahweh is
good, for His mercy endures forever"-- and of those who will bring the
sacrifice of praise into the house of Yahweh. For I will cause
the
captives of the land to return as at the first,' says Yahweh.
Are we to bring
animal sacrifices or sacrifices of praise?
Romans 12:1
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by
the mercies of Yahweh, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable to Yahweh, which is your reasonable service.
Phillipians 2:17
Yes, and if I am being poured out as a
drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad
and rejoice with you all.
If we live our
lives righteously in the sight of Yahweh it is considered to be a
sacrifice to Him.
Zechariah 14:21
Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah
shall be holiness to Yahweh of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall
come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer
be a Canaanite in the house of Yahweh of hosts.
This verse
simply means that in Yahweh's kingdom all the pots in the land are set
apart to Yahweh and everyone is welcome to kill an animal and cook it
in one of these pots.
Daniel 9:27
Then he shall confirm a covenant with
many for one week; but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end
to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall
be one
who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined,
is poured out on the desolate."
In the middle of the
week, both prophetically and literally when Yahshua died, he put and
end to sacrifices.
Luke 22:20
Likewise He also
took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My
blood, which is shed for you.
Every year at Passover we drink
wine representing the blood Yahshua shed for us and re-affirming the
covenant He made with us. Would you sacrifice
an animal after accepting the blood of Yahshua? Why? Isn't
Yahshua's sacrifice good enough?
Hebrews 10:29-31
Of how much worse punishment, do you
suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of Yahweh
underfoot, counted the
blood of the covenant by
which he was set apart
a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of favor? For we know
Him who
said, "Vengeance is Mine; I will repay," says Yahweh And again,
"Yahweh
will judge His people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of
the living Elohim.
Scripture shows us that Yahweh
does not like animal sacrifices, they were not part of his original
plan for Israel. He did not want sacrifices in biblical times, he
does not want sacrifices now. If Yahweh does not want or like
sacrifice why would he plan for animal sacrifice in the future?
That doesn't make sense, Yahweh doesn't change!
If a believer offers an animal
sacrifice then he is telling Yahweh that he doesn't believe Yahshua's
sacrifice was enough and is placing himself at risk of severe
consequences if he does not repent.
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