We read of various sacrifices/offerings throughout the Old Testament (OT) history. There were five main types of offerings. They are described in Leviticus: #1 Burnt (ref Le.1, 6:8-13), #2 Grain (Le.2, 6:14-23), #3 Peace (Le.3, 7:11-34), #4 Sin (Le.4, 5:1-13, 6:24-30, 16:3-22), #5 Guilt/Trespass (Le.5:14-19, 6:1-7, 7:1-7).
This topic mostly discusses burnt offerings. Peace offerings are discussed in the topic “Passover and Peace Offerings”. Sin and guilt offerings, and blood sacrifice (and Christ’s sacrificial death) are discussed in “Day of Atonement (1)”.
New Age advocates have sought self-enlightenment through their own efforts, and ignore the necessary sacrifice of Jesus. Most Islamics, Deists and other non-Christians also disregard His shed blood.
After mankind (Adam & Eve) sinned in the Garden of Eden, the only Way to God’s forgiveness and reconciliation was through shed lifeblood. He.9:22 “Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Sin is atoned for by life/blood.
The first sin of Adam & Eve and the ramifications are discussed in the topic “Tree Symbolism in Scripture”. Ge.3:7 “Then their [Adam & Eve] eyes were opened and they knew they were naked; they sewed fig leaves together and made loin coverings.” Nakedness can be both physical and spiritual, being unclothed or symbolic of sin and shame. Sin brought guilt and shame to their psyche.
Adam & Eve tried to cover their physical nakedness and their sin themselves with fig leaves. Sewn fig leaves, or human devices/ways, are inadequate to cover sin. Ge.3:21 “The Lord God made garments of skin [Strongs h5785, Hebrew] for Adam and his wife, and clothed [h3847] them.” God Himself covered them with animal skins, perhaps leather garments of calfskin or kidskin. In so doing, the Lord showed that to cover the nakedness symbolic of sin and their diminished condition, humans must be “clothed” by means of the death of another! (also see “Skins Made For Adam Were Passed Down?”.)
After they sinned, Adam & Eve were expelled from the Garden, from God’s Presence (Ge.3:22-24). The Way (cf. Ge.3:24, Ac.24:14, 22) back to the Presence would mainly be God’s doing and according to God’s plan, not man’s. It continually required blood.
Most Bible teachers think those first skins were taken from an animal sacrifice. It foreshadowed the (temporary) animal sacrificial system, and ultimately Jesus the Lamb of God’s perfect final sacrifice to cover or atone for humanity’s sins. Cambridge Bible Ge.3:21 “The first mention of death among animals is implied in this provision for man’s clothing.” Ellicott Commentary Ge.3:21 “Animals were killed even in Paradise….Adam must in some way, immediately after the fall, have been taught that without shedding of blood is no remission of sin, but that God will accept a vicarious sacrifice.” JFB Commentary “This implies the institution of animal sacrifice, which was undoubtedly of divine appointment.” It appears that animal sacrifice was an institution authored by God.
Throughout his life, Adam probably followed God’s example/lead or mimicked His action. And Adam & Eve would’ve told their Garden experience to their sons Cain and Abel.
Consequently, Ge.4:3-5 “In the course of time, Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the ground. Abel brought the firstlings of his flock.” This is the first offering (h4503 mincháh) recorded in the Bible. Abel brought a burnt offering, less likely a peace offering. Bible Bay Why Did People Sacrifice Animals? “Ge.4:3-5 Scholars tell us the Hebrew of the first phrase, ‘In the course of time’, suggests this offering of sacrifices was a recurring event.” Perhaps, though we don’t read of God commanding offerings that early. However, it’s very unlikely that Abel and Cain invented sacrifice on their own.
Abel must have known of and believed his parents’ Garden experience/covering, and he offered a lamb. Gill Exposition Ge.4:5 “Firstlings of these, lambs were first brought forth.” Barnes Notes Ge.4:5 “Blood was therefore shed, life was taken away.” Cain brought a form of grain offering (no blood) from common produce he’d grown. (After Adam’s sin, God had cursed his ground, Ge.3:17.) He.11:4 “By faith, Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain. He [Abel] was approved as righteous.” But Cain tried to atone via his own cultivation works. (Adam/Eve had attempted fig leaves as covering.) Cain murdered Abel, and wandered lost from God (Ge.4:6-16).
Knowledge of animal sacrifice was passed down from Adam and his other offspring to the generations of the antediluvian age. After the Flood, history shows that ancient peoples practiced animal sacrifice.
Claude Mariottini Why Did God Ask For Animal Sacrifice? “The origins of animal sacrifice are lost in antiquity. As early as the 4th millennium BC, animal sacrifices were offered in Egypt at the temples at Abýdos, Thebes, and On. Among the animals sacrificed were oxen, wild goats, geese, and even pigs. Babylon had centers of worship at Éridu, Níppur, Érech, Ur, and other places that can be dated from the 4th and the 3rd millenniums BC. Babylonian records give evidence of an elaborate system of worship and sacrifices at these temples. One document says that the animals offered in sacrifice by King Gudea included oxen, sheep, goats, lambs, and birds. As for animal sacrifice in the Bible, the biblical record is very clear that animal sacrifice goes back to the earliest days of biblical history. For instance, the garments of skins for Adam and Eve (Ge.3:21) were made from animals slain in sacrifice.”
The second animal sacrifice recorded in the Bible is in Ge.8:20-21. After the Flood, Noah built an altar and offered burnt offerings…oláh h5930, Greek LXX holocaust g3646. (The ground curse ended.) Bible Encyclopedia: Burnt Offering “It was the most frequent form of sacrifice, and apparently the only one mentioned in the book of Genesis.” (Again, it seems Abel’s sacrifice was a form of burnt offering.)
Animal sacrifice was continued by the post-Flood patriarchs. Abram was from Mesopotámia (Ge.11:31). Ge.12:7 & 13:4 Abram built an altar and called on the Lord. Ge.13:18 Abram built another altar at a different location. Ge.15:9-11, 17-18, here the Lord commanded a covenantal sacrifice from Abram. This was the first single offering commanded by God in the Bible. Ge.22:1-13 later the Lord told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering. But God then substituted a ram in place of Isaac…the burning of human offspring/children as sacrifice wasn’t God’s will.
Ungodly peoples vainly sacrificed children at heathen temples, while drinking blood mixed with wine. God strictly forbad sacrifices to idols and the human consumption of blood. ref Ge.9:4, Le.7:26-27, 17:12, Ac.15:29. see “Sacrifices To Idols and Romans 14”. (After departing Egypt, even Israel would offer burnt & peace offerings to the golden calf idol they made, Ex.32:1-6.)
After Abraham died, Isaac built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord (Ge.26:25). Ge.31:54-55 Jacob and his father-in-law Laban offered a sacrifice and shared a meal at Mizpáh in Gileád. This is the first occurrence of the actual term sacrifice (h2077 zébach) in the Bible. Later, Jacob sacrificed at Beersheba (Ge.46:1), enroute to Egypt to be with his son Joseph the Prime Minister. Joseph’s father-in-law was an Egyptian priest at On/Heliópolis (Ge.41:44-45).
Jb.1:5 the patriarch Job offered burnt offerings at Uz in the East. Family heads often served as priests. Jb.42:8 the Lord commanded Job’s three friends to sacrifice a one-time burnt offering of bulls and rams (clean domestic animals).
Balaám was from Pethór on the Euphrates River in N. Mesopotamia. Balák was the king of Moab. Nu.23:1-4 Balaam & Balak sacrificed bulls and rams as burnt offerings. Then God met with Balaam.
When the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, the Lord had commanded Moses to tell Pharaoh that Israel must go offer sacrifices. Ex.3:18 “The Lord God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.” Ex.10:25-27 Moses/Israel asked permission to go sacrifice burnt offerings (denied). Ex.18:12 after the exodus, Moses’ father-in-law Jethró, the priest of Midián (Ex.18:1), made a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God.
Burnt offerings represented a tribute to God, submission to His will, and a desire to fellowship with Him. An individual, recognizing that he is weak & commits sin, and wanting to renew his relationship with God, could generally give a burnt offering at any time. In a basic sense, it made atonement for his sin nature (Le.1:4), but not for specific sins. The Jewish Encyclopedia article Burnt Offering indicates that burnt offerings weren’t distinctively expiatory (unlike sin/guilt offerings).
Ex.20:24-26 Israelites would be allowed to erect individual altars for burnt & peace offerings. Ex.24:4-8 “He [Moses] sent young men of Israel to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings.” Moses sprinkled the blood of that offering on an altar at Mt. Sinai. This was to ratify God’s Old Covenant with Israel.
Ex.29:38-43 the Lord instituted the daily morning & evening burnt offering, offered every day of the year at the tabernacle/temple. A grain offering was required to accompany this twice-daily sacrifice.
Voluntary salted unleavened grain offerings (KJV “meat” offering is from the Middle English for grain/cereal/meal/food) accompanied other burnt & peace offerings. Or grain offerings were brought alone by the poor. But they didn’t accompany sin/guilt/trespass offerings. (However, the Lord did allow the very poor to offer grain as a sin offering, Le.5:11.) The priest ate a portion of the grain offerings (Le.2:3, 6:16.) Perhaps grain symbolized God’s harvest blessings.
Nu.28–29 shows the extensive sequence of sacrifices that were to be repeated at the tabernacle/temple throughout the year and over the centuries. Why Did God Require Animal Sacrifices in the Old Testament? “The animal served as a substitute—that is, the animal died in place of the sinner, but only temporarily, which is why the sacrifices needed to be offered over and over.”
Burnt offerings were from clean domestic animals…cattle, sheep, goats. The poor could offer birds. Le.1:1-17 the offerer slaughtered the animal. The priest splashed/sprinkled the blood on the altar. The animal was skinned and cut in pieces. The priest arranged the pieces on the altar. The entire animal was burned, except for the hide. The priest kept the hide for himself. Le.7:8 “The priest who presents any man’s burnt offering shall have the skin [h5285].” (cf. Adam) None of the burnt offering was eaten.
De.27:4-7 entering the Holy Land after 40 years in the wilderness, Israel was to offer burnt & peace offerings on an altar at Mt. Ebál. This was a renewal of the Old Covenant with burnt/peace offerings (Ex.24:5-7).
Simple common altars were allowed for the private worship of YHVH, if they weren’t made from stones cut by the hand of man (ref De.16:21 & Ex.20:25). God honored the offering. We read of them elsewhere in the OT. Jg.6:19-21 supernatural fire consumed Gideón’s offering in the presence of the Messenger of the Lord. Jg.13:18-21 the Messenger of YHVH ascended in the flame of Manóah’s (Samson’s father) offering. God’s Messenger or Name was there for those two offerings. (Ge.4:4-5 possibly fire had fallen on Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s.)
1Ch.21:26 fire from heaven fell upon the altar of David’s burnt & peace offerings on Mt. Moriáh at the site of Ornán’s/Araunáh’s threshing floor. In 1Ki.18:30-39, fire fell from heaven and consumed Elijah’s burnt offering on an altar at Mt. Carmél. God showed up! (see “Fire From Heaven!”)
However, no Bible verse commands anyone to do recurring animal sacrifices away from the Lord’s tabernacle/temple…the place of God’s Name. All sin and guilt offerings…and most burnt, grain and peace offerings…must be sacrificed at the altar of the tabernacle/temple. That one altar with holy fire! Those offerings there, and the altar, were most holy (ref Ex.40:10, Le.2:10, 6:17, 14:13).
Centuries later, the Lord sent the kingdoms of Israel and Judah into captivity for their disobedience; to Assyria and Babylon respectively. Ezr.6:3-9 afterwards, the Jewish returnees to the Land from Babylon were to offer burnt offerings (h5928 Aramaic, v.9) at the altar of Zerubbabél’s temple in Jerusalem.
Burnt offerings were the most common type of sacrifice. They may be voluntary korbán (h7133, ref Le.1:2-3), which was an offering in general for worship/fellowship with God. But in Mk.7:9-13, Jesus criticized those Jews’ oral tradition…they dedicated/claimed that one’s wealth would pass to the temple, while using it selfishly until death. Those Jews were claiming “It is korban” (Mk.7:11). They tried to excuse themselves from using their means to rightly care for the needs of their elderly parents.
Again, only clean domestic animals (and clean birds) were allowed by God for sacrifices. Clean wild animals/game, unclean creatures, and fish weren’t allowed. Those cost the offerer comparatively nothing! It is meaningful that sin and sacrifices exact a cost. 2Sm.24:24-25 David understood there should be a price to pay. e.g. a more expensive animal, a ram, was required as a guilt offering to atone for a person or family’s intentional non-capital sin (Le.6:1-7).
The Jews continued to offer burnt offerings and other sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem, until it was destroyed in 70 AD. Blood was sprinkled on the altar there. The Old Covenant was a blood covenant (Ex.24:4-8). Throughout OT times, blood was offered.
Then the promised Seed of the first woman (Ge.3:15) came to earth 2,000 years ago…and shed His perfect blood on the cross! (see “Jesus’ Virgin Birth”.) Jesus the Son of God died once for all mankind. 1Pe.1:18-19 Jesus’ precious blood! Mt.27:50-51 the temple veil of separation tore at Jesus’ death. Jesus entered into the Presence of God, into the greater and more perfect heavenly tabernacle, on our behalf. ref He.9:8-16.
No more Old Covenant sacrifices are necessary! The temple has been gone for 2,000 years. After Father God watched His Son die on the cross, there’s no need to revert to inferior animal sacrifices! They are finished. Jesus fulfilled the burnt offerings…and all the OT sacrificial types.
{Sidelight: Le.14 is about cleansing the leper. v.1-8 two (clean) birds and cedar wood were involved. One bird was slain. The live bird and the cedar wood were dipped in the blood of the slain bird. The live bird was set free. Then the priest sprinkled the leper with the blood. The blood “cleansed” (g2511 LXX) the leper. Even the typology of this ceremony to cleanse the leper is fulfilled. The slain bird symbolized the blood of Jesus crucified. The cedar wood symbolized His cross, and the live bird the resurrected Jesus. (also ref the slain goat and the live goat in Le.16, discussed in “Day of Atonement (1)”.) 1Jn.1:7 we too are figuratively “cleansed” (g2511) from sin by His blood.}
1Co.11:23-25 the New Covenant is in Jesus’ blood. He.13:20 we’re in this eternal Covenant. Re.1:5 mankind is released from our sins by His blood. Ep.1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.” Col.1:20 the blood of the cross reconciles us to the Father and brings peace. 1Co.6:20 “You have been bought with a price.” God paid the highest price to redeem us…His lifeblood (Ac.20:28)! Jesus said in Jn.19:30, “It is finished”!
Adam & Eve were cast out of the Garden. God provided them with clothing from an animal sacrifice. Re.19:13 the garment of Jesus, our ultimate sacrifice, was stained with His own blood. (Mt.27:35 the Roman soldiers even cast lots for His garment at His crucifixion.) Animal sacrifices, including burnt offerings, are now unnecessary.
The separation from God is ended! Jesus’ blood makes it possible for us to come before God and be in His Presence again (He.10:19)! The blood of Christ is a must for our salvation! There’s no other Way to God (contrary to New Age theories and false religions). As the song goes…Don’t Forget The Blood!
Bible Topic Exposition 