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The Purpose of the Animal Sacrifices,[1] Part Three

The Other Sacrifices

 

The Grain Offerings

 

“When anyone presents a grain offering [minchah] as a gift to the Lord, his gift must consist of fine flour. He is to pour olive oil on it, put frankincense on it.”[2]

 

The term “grain offering” is not a literal translation of the Hebrew word minchah, which does not actually mean either “grain” or “meat (KJV).” Like the work korban, the Hebrew word minchah simply means “gift” or “tribute.” Hence, the minchah offerings should best be translated as “gift offerings.” (It may be of interest that the afternoon Jewish prayers are called the minchah service, corresponding to the Temple’s sacrificial system.)

 

Similar to the burnt offering, the minchah offering was not a penalty for sin. A worshiper would be a grain offering as a freewill gift to God, completely voluntarily.

 

The grain offering consisted of grain , usually wheat, olive oil, and frankincense. Since this was a grain offering, it should become clear that the offerings did not have to “die” on behalf of sinners. After all, how could grain die?

 

Unleavened

 

Just like the matzah at Pesach (Passover), the grain offering was prepared unleavened. In the temple system, leaven represents evil, corruption, decay, and mortality.

 

The grain offerings could be presented to the LORD baked in an oven, fried in a pan, deep-pan fried, or even uncooked. Worshipers usually brought grain offerings in combination with other offerings, including burnt and peace offerings. In fact, the poor could substitute grain in place of animals for the other sacrifices, since they could not afford the animals. Once again, this goes to show that the offerings were not about the “death” of the sacrifice in behalf of the worshiper.

 

Salted

 

You are to season each of your grain offerings with salt; you must not omit from your grain offering the salt of the covenant with your God. You are to present salt with each of your offerings.[3]

 

The Torah required every grain offering to be seasoned with salt before being placed on the altar. In the ancient world, people used salt as a preservative. The “salt of the covenant” was symbolic of the eternal and unchanging nature of God’s covenant with the children of Israel. Although obedience to God’s commands is an implied, if not explicit, aspect of God’s covenants, His faithfulness is what preserves his covenant with His people. To this day, on Shabbat, one dips the challah in salt before eating it because the Talmud says, “A man’s table is like the altar.”[4]

 

Peace Offerings

 

“If his offering is a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers an animal from the herd, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord.”[5]

 

The term peace offering translates the Hebrew word shelamim, which is related to the Hebrew word for “peace,” shalom. Similar to the burnt and grain offerings, the worshiper voluntarily brought up the peace offerings. Many types of offerings fell within this category of the peace offering, including the thanksgiving offerings, votive offerings, freewill offerings, and Passover lambs. These offerings were never brought up for sin or to earn forgiveness for sin.

 

Like the burnt offerings, the peace offering had to be without blemish or defect.

 

And from the sacrifice of the peace offering, as a food offering to the Lord, he shall offer the fat covering the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. Then Aaron’s sons shall burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering, which is on the wood on the fire; it is a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.[6]

 

The remainder of the peace offering was divided by the priest between the worshiper and the priest. This peace offering allowed the worshiper to enjoy table-fellowship with the LORD. The shared meal symbolized table-fellowship between the worshiper and his family and friends, the priests, and the LORD. Any Israelite in a state of ritual purity could eat from the sacrifice. Also, the poor were to be allowed to eat from one’s sacrifice.

 

Sacrifices for Sin

 

So far, the three types of offerings had nothing to do with sin and forgiveness. People did not offer burnt, grain, or peace offerings as payment for sin. The worshiper brought these offerings as a means of drawing near to the LORD, voluntarily.

 

The last two types of offerings are concerned with sin: the sin offering and the guilt offering. However, in order to properly understand these offerings, we need to understand God’s definition of sin as He revealed it to us in His Torah:

 

“Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If anyone sins unintentionally in any of the Lord’s commandments about things not to be done, and does any one of them …”[7]

 

In other words, sin is doing something forbidden by God in the Torah. In other words, sin is doing something contrary to the negative commands, the “you will not” commands. The converse is also true. Sin also includes not obeying God’s positive commands. In other words, sin also includes not doing the things that God has commanded His people to do as revealed in His Torah.

 

The word “sin,” based on the Hebrew archery word chata, means “to miss the mark.” Sin is like an arrow that misses and falls short of the target, the Torah.

 

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.[8]

 

This can also be seen in the name Torah, which comes from the Hebrew verbal root, yarah, “to take aim.” Just as a person shoots for a target, a person practicing righteousness aims to hit the target of Torah. When a person fails to fulfill the Torah, one falls short of the target, and that is sin. The Torah here tells us that even an unintentional violation of God’s commandments as reveal in the Torah is a sin.

 

There is certainly no righteous man on the earth who does good and never sins.[9]

 

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.[10]

 

Since all, aside for Yeshua, have sinned, it may be tempting to dismiss sin. Unfortunately, many within the church have taken the attitude that, “Oh well, nobody is perfect; everyone sins. It is no big deal. Besides, we have the ‘blood of Jesus’ to take away the guilt of our sins. Let’s not get all ‘self-righteous’ and ‘legalistic’ now!”

 

However, disobedience to God’s commandments is a very serious matter and not meant to be taken lightly. God looks at sin as such a serious situation that even unintentional sins required a sacrifice in order to repair the broken relationship. As will be noted, the laws of the sin offerings reveal the gravity of sin.

 

Sin Offerings

 

The first striking aspect of the sin offerings is that the torah begins, “If anyone sins unintentionally.” In other words, the sin offerings were only for unintentional sins. We are not told how to repair the relationship with God from intentional sins. For intentional sins, we are completely at the mercy of God. At that point, we are solely left with the promise that through true, heart-felt teshuvah, repentance, God is faithful to forgive us for our sins. When God revealed the sin offerings to His people, it is as if He did not want people to think they could just do a sacrifice in order to repair the damage done to the relationship with God through intentional, purposeful sins.

 

The Hebrew word for “sin offering,” chatat, is similar to the word for sin, cheit. Depending on who sinned, whether it be the high priest, the entire community of Israel, the elders, or an individual Israelite, different animals were required for the sin offering. Also, there was a “sliding scale” available to the individual based on the person’s level of wealth or poverty. If an individual sinned, the sacrifice was to be a goat or lamb. However, if the person was too poor to be able to afford a goat or lamb, the person could offer a pair of doves. However, if the person was so poor that he could not even afford the pair of doves, he was able to bring flour as a sin offering.

 

Based on the fact that flour could be substituted for the animal, it needs to be understood that the sin offering was not a penalty for sinning. Once the sinner had turned from the sin, confessed the sin, repented of the sin (teshuvah), and been forgiven for the sin, then, as a means of spiritual purification from the stain of the sin, the sin offering would be presented to the LORD.

 

The fact that the sin offerings were not as a payment for the punishment of a sin, there are a number of conditions that required the sin offering to be brought before the LORD that had absolutely nothing to do with sin on behalf of the worshiper:

 

“When her days of purification are complete, whether for a son or daughter, she is to bring to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting a year-old male lamb for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering.”[11]

           

The priest must sacrifice the sin offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from his uncleanness [from leprosy]. Afterward he will slaughter the burnt offering.[12]

 

The priest is to offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to make atonement on behalf of the Nazirite, since he sinned because of the corpse. On that day he must consecrate his head again.[13]

 

[After completion of one’s Nazarite vow], he is to present an offering to the Lord of one unblemished year-old male lamb as a burnt offering, one unblemished year-old female lamb as a sin offering, one unblemished ram as a fellowship offering.[14]

 

Since none of these people actually sinned, the chatat cannot be considered as simply an offering for sin. Hence, a better translation of chatat would be a “purification offering.” The Hebrew word chata can mean purification, as well as sin.

 

Then Moses slaughtered it, took the blood, and applied it with his finger to the horns of the altar on all sides, purifying [chata] the altar. He poured out the blood at the base of the altar and consecrated it so that atonement can be made on it.[15]

 

In the purification from corpse contamination with the red heifer, we read the following:

 

“This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and on which a yoke has never come … And they shall be kept for the water for impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel; it is a sin offering [chatat].”[16]

 

As can be seen from all of these cases in which the person had not sinned, a chatat is often required from an individual who has become ritually unclean. Although the individual has not sinned, the man or woman is in need of purification. When we consider that sin also makes a person ritually impure, from these passages it can be seen that the chatat offering is best seen as a ritual purification offering, required from any ritual defilement, whether it be unintentional sin or some other ritual defilement.

 

The Guilt Offering

 

In most aspects of the guilt offering, asham, it is similar to the chatat and can be seen as a specific type of chatat. The Hebrew word asham implies indemnity and reparation. The Torah stipulates a guilt offering for any offenses against the commandments in Torah that require a payment of restitution. Whenever a person is guilty of misappropriation of some else’s property (i.e., theft, fraud, etc.) or the misuse of sacred objects, the Torah required the person to repay the full amount of the object plus one-fifth. Then the person had to bring a guilt offering to the LORD.

 

As can be seen from this, within Torah, an offense toward another person was also an offense towards God. Hence, after paying back the full amount of the damages plus the one-fifth penalty-fee, the guilty party was to bring an asham, a guilt offering, to the LORD.

 

The Torah does not say that the sacrifice takes away the sin from the guilty party. Once the individual has realized his offense and made full restitution to the injured party, has repented and asked for forgiveness, then:

 

The priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord, and he shall be forgiven for any of the things that one may do and thereby become guilty.[17]

 

Summary

 

From this brief study, we learn certain truths regarding the sacrifices:

 

• The different types of sacrifices have different meanings.
• Only two of the five types of sacrifices are for sin.
• The sacrifices were a means for the worshiper to draw near to God within His Temple.
• Most of the sacrifices are more like gifts given voluntarily, rather than penalties for sins.