Introduction
Welcome to the study of the sacrificial system. This study will come out of the book of Leviticus. As an individual reads Leviticus he gets the impression that it is a very dull and perhaps uninspiring book, yet it is one of the most interesting studies in the entire Old Testament. In this first lesson we will introduce the study of the sacrifices of the Law of Moses and give an explanation of the different kinds of prophecy that the Old Testament contains. Then we will study the concept of typology, which is a term that needs to be identified and explained. Then we will enter a study of the sacrifices as a system of shadows, or better — a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
In the Hebrew text, Leviticus begins with the word “and,” showing that it was the continuation of the story that was begun in Exodus, with which it stands as a unit. Exodus closes the primary stage of Hebrew history and begins the story of God’s legislation to His people through the Law of Moses. Exodus is a prelude to and an introduction to Leviticus.
We begin in Exodus 19:5-6 where God makes a statement to the children of Israel after He had rescued them out of Egyptian bondage: “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” The fundamental purpose of priests is to offer sacrifices to God. Thus God wanted the entire nation of Israel to be His holy priesthood and to become a holy nation. The word “holy” not only suggests the idea of belonging to God but also defines the moral qualities that Israel must exercise in its relationship with God.
Then in Exodus 20, from Mount Sinai God gave the Law of Moses with its Ten Commandments for the constitution, the undergirding principles, on which the entire government of Israel would be conducted in the Mosaic covenant. Those principles are called statutes, ordinances and commandments. Following chapter 20 the rest of the book of Exodus is devoted to the explanation of the building of the tabernacle, the ordination of the Levitical priests into their sacred functions and some initial explanations of the sacrifices that the priests would offer at that tabernacle according to the demands of the law.
These are the four ingredients that go into the constitution of the sacrificial system of the Law of Moses: the law itself (the covenant), the priests, the tabernacle and the sacrifices.. These are the fundamental basis of the study of the sacrificial system of the book of Leviticus.
Important Lessons From Leviticus
Leviticus offers to the student of the Bible many important lessons about God, about daily living under His government and about the daily religious life of His people under the law. Some of those lessons are extremely important, even for Christians today, and they can be gleaned from the pages of the book of Leviticus.
One of the first lessons that Leviticus teaches us relates to the holiness of God. As a matter of fact, His holiness might well be the major theme of Leviticus. The word “holy” and its derivatives appear at least 83 times in this book. Such extensive usage of the word “holy” tells us much about the thrust of the Law of Moses and particularly about the book of Leviticus. Not only is God holy, His people also are to be holy. His sanctuary is holy, and its sacrifices are holy. Therefore, everything is special in the book of Leviticus.
The second lesson we learn from the book of Leviticus is the way in which God establishes what is called “theocratic rule” in the nation of Israel. A theocracy is God ruling the people. God wanted to be their king. He therefore wanted them to respect and observe His laws because He was considered as sovereign over the people.
The third lesson that Leviticus teaches is that this book and its worship ordinances consecrated Israel to a very sacred historical mission that God had in mind for that nation of people to accomplish. That mission will become evident as we study the various sacrifices demanded in the book, because those sacrifices are prophetic of the sacrificial mission of the future Messiah.
Lesson four from Leviticus is derived from the revelation of the nature and the consequences of sin. It shows how sin can frustrate and even break the relationship between God and His people. Sin destroys fellowship. It destroys covenant relationship. Therefore, those sins and trespasses that have been committed violate the initial government of God and disrupt the fellowship between the people and God, and their covenant relations cannot be restored. However, the book of Leviticus also demonstrates through the sacrificial system how God has been able to manifest His mercy and His grace in granting forgiveness to the people of Israel.
The next lesson we want to learn from Leviticus is how this whole system of sacrifices, priests, tabernacle and covenant prepares the nation of Israel for the coming of Messiah. The apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 3:24 that the law was a tutor, like a primary grade teacher or like a kindergarten designed to bring the nation of Israel to the coming of the Messiah. It also confirms the faith of Christian people in the mission Jesus accomplished through His sacrifice on the cross.
Again Leviticus demonstrates how God intended to regulate the natural tendencies, the natural desire and urge on the part of the man to worship his God. It is this book that gives the details of how God wants His people to worship Him. He gives the rules by which that worship will be carried out. He explains to them what is acceptable worship and what is not acceptable. There are examples of those who have violated the worship patterns, as in the case of Nadab and Abihu, and the sober consequences of that violation recorded in Leviticus chapter 10. Such episodes assure us that God is interested in the worship of His people, but according to the rules that He establishes.
The next lesson we learn from the book of Leviticus is that it defines through its symbols, through its ceremonies, and especially through its feast days, the ultimate destiny of man. Man, quite evidently, was created for fellowship with God, not only in this world, but particularly in the world to come. His sacrifices were designed to atone for the sins that would alienate man from Him. Through those sacrifices the sinner was brought back into fellowship and thereby was assured of his ultimate destiny with God after this life is over. In other words, God is not simply interested in fellowship with man here and now. He wants that fellowship in the eternities beyond time and that in heaven. Even their Sabbath rest was a figure used by the writer of the book of Hebrews to foreshadow the believer’s eternal rest with God in heaven (Hebrews 3 and 4).
Leviticus declares those eternal unchanging principles of law that are called ordinances, statutes and commands by which God intends to govern His people through their obedient faith in response to His law and to His goodness. Law, to be law, must reward those who obey its mandates and punish those who violate its sacred ordinances. The requirements of God’s law may change, and do change for each of the major periods of Biblical history: the patriarchy, the Mosaic economy and the Christian age. However, each dispensation is bound to observe the laws exclusive to it and will be judged by the laws in vigor during the age under discussion.
Clearly Leviticus establishes inevitably and indelibly the concept of redemption by sacrificial blood. We read from Leviticus 17:10 that God prohibited the children of Israel from eating blood. In verse 11 He explains: “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves (The Hebrew would say “for your soul”) on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” So when the law says: “The soul who sins is the one who will die” (Ezekiel 18:4), either that soul dies under sin or else presents to God an acceptable substitute that dies in his place. Such is called sacrificial atonement. Therefore, when the animal gives its blood, it gives its life.
All of that is symbolic of the fact that Jesus would voluntarily give His life for the redemption of the whole human family. Leviticus builds the “blood-redemptive” concept into the whole Mosaic system of sacrifices. There will be built into the Mosaic system evidence of the Law’s inability to really handle the sin problem. It was never designed to do so. There will be a number of ways in which this book gives ample demonstration of what the Hebrew writer will tell us in chapter 10:4: “. . . it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Therefore, built into the constitution of these sacrifices of the law, God has given ample evidence that there must be one, great, ultimate sacrifice as symbolized by all those Levitical sacrifices that will in reality take care of the problem once and for all. That final sacrifice is Jesus Himself.
At the same time God builds into that sacrificial system evidence that the law of Moses is not intended to be a permanent system. It is temporary and transient in nature. Its portable tabernacle was evidence of its eventual termination.
Levitical Sacrifices Were Prophetic of Christ
Two Major Prophetic Forms in the Old Testament
Therefore, the Levitical system becomes a prophecy. It becomes prophetic of Jesus Christ and in some way even of Christians themselves. There are two major prophetic forms that are used in the Old Testament. There is one form that is called verbal prophecy. That is a simple declaration in verbal form, in word form, of some aspect of the coming of Messiah and of His life. There were over 300 specific word or verbal prophecies giving information about the coming of Christ. Let me give an example of what is meant by a verbal prophecy.
God said in Psalm 2:6-7, “‘I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill.’ I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.’” That is a prophecy of the resurrection of Christ. The apostle Peter makes mention of that in Acts 2, saying that God would not leave Jesus’ soul in Hades after His sacrifice on the cross. Nor would He allow the body of Christ to see corruption. And Psalm 16 prophesies that in verbal form.
In Isaiah 7:14 there is the declaration that Christ would be born of a virgin and that His name would be called Immanuel. In Psalm 22:16 and18 there is a verbal description of the crucifixion of Christ. “. . . they have pierced my hands and my feet. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” Those are some of the more interesting details that explain the sacrifice of Christ centuries in advance. In Micah 5:2-3 it was prophesied verbally that the Messiah would be born in the city of Bethlehem. So that is one form of Old Testament prophecy.
There is another form of prophecy that is called “system prophecy.” A system prophecy is composed of a whole complex series of events, persons, circumstances and activities that are rolled up into a kind of prophetic form. Such “systems” predict and prophesy out of the whole historical context and thus foretell some aspect of the mission of Christ. Let me give an example of that.
In Numbers 21:4ff, Israel had been murmuring against God because of their lack of faith. So God sent fiery serpents among the people and many of them were bitten and died or were dying. To cure them of the fatal bite of the serpent, God commanded Moses to make a symbol of a serpent out of bronze and to place it on a staff in the center of the camp in Israel. Any Hebrew who had been bitten by the fiery serpent could go to the center of the camp. He could look upon that serpent and he would be spared from death. It is from that whole series of events that John draws a prophetic analogy relating to Jesus Christ. John 3:14 says: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” Evidently John sees a prophecy of Christ on the cross of Calvary in the overall episode in Numbers 21, and John 3:14 explains the prophetic analogy. So the fiery serpent becomes a symbol, a system prophecy of Jesus Christ.
There is another prophecy that is contained in a whole series of events described in the book of Exodus: the story of the exodus itself. Moses had led the children of Israel out of Egypt and had brought them into the wilderness, and they were going toward the promised land. Hebrews 3 and 4 tell us the story of Jesus beginning a new exodus. He is taking His people out of their “Egypt” of sin into the kingdom of Christ, headed for the promised land which is heaven itself. Therefore, the whole story of the exodus becomes a kind of prophecy of Jesus Christ and His people under His exodus.
In Luke 22:14ff, the last time that the Passover was celebrated with any kind of historic or religious significance was the night when Jesus celebrated it with His apostles. He told them in that context: “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it (the Passover) again until it (the Passover) finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” It is clear from Jesus’ words that He considers the Passover to be prophetic and that its prophecies must be fulfilled by Him. That is what prophecy demands. Prophecy has to be fulfilled or the prophetic anticipation will automatically fail. Jesus knows that He must fulfill the prophecies that are contained in the Passover itself.
The apostle Paul tells us in I Corinthians 5:7 that “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the festival . . .” In other words, “our Passover” says that we Christians have a Passover too. Our lamb has been slain! The Hebrew people had theirs; it was a physical lamb. Our sacrifice is the loving “lamb of God”—Jesus Christ. His blood has been sprinkled around the “door post” of our hearts through faith, and we have been delivered from the slavery to our sins. We are now headed for our promised land of heaven itself. This is a system of prophecy.
An interesting, but providentially included, detail of prophetic information associated with the Hebrew Passover lamb was in fact that none of its bones should be broken (Exodus 12:46). There would appear to be no particular significance to the demand that no bones of the lamb be broken. However, that apparently insignificant detail assumes great meaning when we examine the crucifixion scene when Jesus’ bones were not broken “These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones will be broken’. . .” (John 19:36). The legs of the two thieves that were crucified with Jesus were broken because they were still alive when the soldiers came. This was done to hasten their death, so they would not hang alive on the cross on the day of Passover and thus desecrate the feast. However, since Jesus was already dead, they did not break His bones. Clearly God had already built into the old Hebrew Passover ceremonials confirmation that Jesus did actually die on the cross rather than go into a coma as some have proposed in their attempt to deny the resurrection. System prophecy builds our convictions and our faith about history.
Evidently God foreknew the attempts some would make to deny the resurrection of Christ, so He built into Passover typology the details about the bones to confirm future history.
The apostle Peter draws a prophetic analogy by presenting a parallel between the flood in Genesis 7 and Christian baptism. As the world was overflowing with sin, God brought about a raging flood of water to destroy another flood of sin. The apostle Peter points out the fact that there were eight souls who were saved through water (I Peter 3:20). In verse 21 he makes the spiritual application to that physical flood that destroyed that sinful, physical world. The spiritual application is, “. . . and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also . . .” So there is a parallel. There is a type of prophecy in the flood of the Old Testament that has its fulfillment in Christian baptism. Therefore, the apostle Peter instructs that the waters of the flood saved Noah from a world contaminated by sin and lifted him out of that world and transported him into a world that was cleansed by the blood of Christ. It is not that we are cleansed by water, but it is at the baptistry that we come into contact with the blood of Jesus Christ that does the cleansing.
All of these are physical series of events with spiritual implications. In Isaiah 35, the prophet is found giving some details about the coming kingdom of Christ. “There is going to be a way,” he tells us, “and a highway. It is a way of holiness. The unclean shall not enter in it. The wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err in his adaptation to this new way of life.” The prophet gave some physical illustrations of the spiritual realities that Christ is going to bring to His people. Isaiah speaks about a desert that will be turned into a veritable garden of Eden. He tells about the deaf that will begin to hear, the blind that will begin to see and the lame that will begin to walk. Those are physical descriptions of the future spiritual realities that will be accomplished in Jesus Christ. Jesus will turn our sinful desert into a spiritual garden of Eden. All of those are physical representations with spiritual application.
Typology – Types and Antitypes
There is a principle of study in the Old Testament that is called “typology.” There are two Greek words that are often used to define this: tupos and antitupos. Tupos is a type and the antitupos is a counter-type. It is the opposing type. Well, it is a little bit like an architectural drawing, a blue-print that gives some amazing details and defines the structure that will later be turned into a building. It is like a pattern that a woman uses to cut out the cloth with which she will make a dress. Typology deals with models of future realities. They are a prototype of things that are yet to come.
The writer of the book of Hebrews uses quite extensively the concepts of types and antitypes to draw either parallels or contrasts between the Old Testament systems and those of the New Testament.
Shadows Versus the Substance
There is another system that belongs to typology, and it is called “shadows and realities.” It is the substance that casts the shadow. The New Testament uses that concept of shadows a number of times. In the third and fourth chapter of the book of Hebrews, as we have already noted, the children of Israel in their exodus from Egypt and journey to the promised land is a shadow of heaven which is the ultimate reality. Even the Hebrew Sabbath, in that same context, is presented as a shadow of the future rest of the people of God.
In Hebrews 8:5 the writer talks about the old Hebrew sanctuary, the tabernacle itself. It was physical in structure, but it foreshadowed the spiritual realities of the sanctuary of Jesus Christ. The Hebrew writer uses three Greek words to define the parallel, or even the contrast. He talks about a “shadow” and a “copy” of a “pattern.” The Greek words are skia (shadow), hupodeigmati (pattern), and tupos (copy). The old Hebrew tabernacle was a shadowy copy of a pattern of the future sanctuary of Christ Jesus. In Hebrews 9:23, the writer tells us that the copies of the things in the heavens, which represented the Old Testament system, had to be cleansed with animal blood. But the heavenly things themselves, the New Testament counterparts, had to be cleansed with better sacrifices than these—the reality sacrifice of Christ.
Hebrews 10:1 tells us that the Jewish sacrifices were a shadow: “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.” So the Hebrew sacrifices were shadows.
In Colossians 2:16-17, Paul says, as he talks about Jewish food requirements—their drinks, their festivals, their new moons, their Sabbath days—that no one was to judge Christians for their non-observance of those shadow systems, for they were only for Jews. “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” All these above passages deal with Biblical typology that is prophetic in purpose. Jesus used this form of teaching quite frequently in the many parables He gave about the future glories and duties of Kingdom people.
Shadows not only predict but they demand the substance that casts the shadow. In Genesis 1:26 we are told that man is created in the image of God. The Hebrew word for “image” is shadow. So man bears the deep spiritual, intellectual shadow of God Himself. That shadow of man demands the reality, the spiritual realities of the intellectual, spiritual qualities of the God who created us.
One thing is clear about shadows: they do not have independent existence. There is no such thing as a shadow without the substance that casts it. You cannot build a house out of the shadow of a tree. Shadows occasionally precede in time the arrival of the substance. Maybe this has been your experience. Late in the evening you see the sun going down and as the shadow of an airplane may pass before your eyes on the ground, it becomes evident to you that an airplane has passed between you and the sun. The shadow may arrive before the substance is visible. However, after a short period of time you begin to hear the hum and drum of the airplane motor, and you know that the shadow had simply predicted and demanded the coming of the airplane, the reality that cast it.
Jewish Sacrifices (Sacrificial System) Prefigures Jesus Christ
Hebrews 9:23 tells us that Christ’s sacrifices were plural in nature. Because in His one sacrifice He covers the many different aspects of the Jewish sacrificial system. In other words, there were many sacrifices under the Law of Moses, and they predict, foreshadow and prophesy different aspects of the sacrifice of Christ:
- In the Hebrew burnt offering is seen the consecration of Christ to God.
- In their cereal offering or grain offering is seen Christ presenting unto God the redeemed of the world as the first fruits of His labor.
- In the peace offering is seen the reconciliation that Christ brings to the human family.
- In the sin offering is seen His atonement.
- In the trespass offering Christ is seen defending the righteousness and justice of God.
- In the Day of Atonement Christ is seen, not only as a sacrifice fulfilling all the sacrificial typology of the Old Testament, but also as the fulfillment of the priestly functions involved in that sacrifice.
- In the Passover Christ is found liberating His people from the bondage to sin.
- In the red heifer sacrifice is found Christ eliminating and removing all of the physical and spiritual defilements that sin brings upon the human family.
Therefore, in this study we will be investigating the system of sacrifices under the law of Moses, but we will really be getting a picture of the ultimate glorious sacrifice of Jesus Christ which was offered ultimately on the cross of Calvary.