Pictures of a Perfect Sacrifice

Most of the early Bible stories offer insightful clues on the nature of man and interesting perspectives on God's earliest interventions into the affairs of man. You are likely familiar with the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, Noah and his ark floating in the worst flood ever as others perished all about and thereafter the biblical account of the calling of Abraham. But perhaps the most dramatic of them all and one which could comfortably fit into a prime-time T.V. series today is that of Jacob and his rather large family. It culminated in Joseph, his second last-born, rising at a dizzying rate to great political power in a foreign land. However after the story of Joseph things tend to get a little murky for most people.

Enter Moses and the miraculous calamities he invokes over the land of Egypt. Many are stamped by the unabashed references to cataclysmic events that seem to be overtly aimed against the Egyptian economy and more covertly at their pagan gods.
 A good number today, unable to conceive a miracle-working God, choose instead, to repudiate the miraculous nature of the ruinous events in Egypt by arguing that they were no more than well-timed environmental disasters.
The movie; Exodus: God’s and Kings is one of the most recent attempts to ‘naturalize’ the supernatural events described in the book of Exodus. But there is more.


In Exodus 12 we come upon the final blow that convinced Pharaoh to release the Israelites. Moses had been to the King’s palace to give him a final warning. Pharaoh contemptuously dismissed him.
That night God gave Moses very specific instructions to pass on to the Israelites. It was going to be their last night in Egypt. God would send the angel of death throughout the land to pick out the first-born in each and every family. The Israelites’ first-borns would however be spared. How would the grim-reaper distinguish the Israelite households from the Egyptian house-holds?

Well, God gave the Israelites very detailed instructions to avoid the impending disaster. It later came to be known as the Passover and continues to be celebrated in Jewish communities to this day. What were these instructions and do they hold any significance for us today?

Without defect

5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.

When I was just a boy, KBC would air interesting episodes based on dramatized bible stories. One of the most enduring scenes that pops to mind is when a young fisherman scaled the steep sides of a cliff to bring to Herod, the cruel Roman King, his best catch ever. The palace wall was built as an extension of the cliff edge but the agile man eventually scrambled over the high wall and jumped onto the palace grounds, his gift of a prime-catch swung over his shoulder. He was immediately surrounded by soldiers guarding the King who until then had been on a leisurely stroll along the palace walls.

Herod looked at the scrawny, smelly fisherman eagerly holding out his prize catch. He then spoke some harsh words and the poor fellow was man-handled and made to stand precariously on the very ledge of the wind-swept walls. The King disdainfully picked up a sizable fish and without another word walked up to the fisherman and smacked him hard across his abdomen with it. There was a horrifying scream as the man lost his footing and plunged to certain death in the churning waters far below.

For many days I wondered why the king had reacted in that manner. Eventually I concluded that the egotistical king was just an incredibly bad man.
Today however, I  hold a modified view. I want to argue that the fisherman was partly to blame.
He made two mistakes either of which can prove disastrous in the presence of a powerful individual such as the king;

1. He violated protocol that governs how and when one might approach a king
2. He presented the wrong gift. Considering the circumstances it was both improper and imperfect.

How does this play into the larger scheme of God, the Israelites and us today?

I'd say that in telling the Israelites to present for the Passover sacrifice animals that were without defect, God was communicating two big things;

1. He is a great king, He expects only the best from His subjects (which incidentally is you and me).
2. He was pointing to a future sacrifice. It was going to be the final liberating sacrifice; perfect to the last detail.

Lets consider the first point by looking at the last book of the Old Testament.

In Malachi 1 God chides His people;

⁶ “A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty.

“. ⁸ When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty."

And then again;

“When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the Lord. ¹⁴ “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations."

Thus God  is saying that He too is a great king and He will not accept imperfect gifts from minions. So there you are. Whatever you choose to bring before God, whether it is a portion of your wealth, your time, your house or an offer to help with your skills pro bono, let it be your best.

Let us consider the second point.

The Passover and all consequent sacrifices pointed to Jesus as the perfect sacrifice. The Bible tells us;

….But he (Jesus) has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷ Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸ so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Heb. 9:24-28

 Thus for the sake of humanity God gave us Jesus Christ as the ultimate sacrifice. He was perfect in that He had no sin. The sacrifice of His life was also perfect in the sense that it was sufficient to satisfy the demands of God for all people and for all eternity. Thus it negated the need for all other blood sacrifices to cleanse sin.

What will you offer Him in return? It is written;

“Come back to God!”

²¹ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. II Cor. 5:20b-21