Lakeview Baptist

As I was thinking about this Christmas I remembered the song Christmas has its Cradle, Easter has its Cross. I just finished listening to Away in the Manger and I started thinking about it. I am not sure really why. I did hear the other day someone talking about Jesus being the perfect sacrifice. That sacrifice for all mankind had to be a lamb.

This furthered my thinking about that sacrifice and all sacrifices. So I started doing a little research. There are two types of sacrifices given in the Mosaic Law, Obligatory and Voluntary. The first was required by God. It would be the sin offering, intentional and unintentional. An animal was sacrificed to restore fellowship with God. There was also the trespass offering. It was a

mandatory offering required to atone for specific sins and to make restitution for wrongs that had been committed. The Voluntary offering were given as an act of worship or thanksgiving. They could be a burnt animal offering or a grain offering (wheat, barley) ground into a fine flour mixed with oil and possibly frankincense.

I discovered in my research that the animals for the offerings were to be a clean animal. An ox, sheep or goat was to be used and for the poor that could not afford the mentioned animals, they could use a turtle dove. The animal offered had to be domesticated. It could not be a wild animal. The individual offering it had to pay the cost of the animal, raising it by his own personal labor. If it was caught in the wild it would not

cost the one offering the animal anything. And, finally, it had to be free from flaws.

The animal sacrifice was what really caught my attention. The one bringing the sacrifice would go to the temple and present the animal to the Priest. The Priest would examine the animal and once approval was given the one bringing the offering would place his hands over the animal (conferring his sin(s) upon the animal) and slay the animal, skin it, quarter it up and give to the Priest. The Priest would catch some of the blood as the animal was killed and pour at the corner of the altar or place blood on the horns of the altar.

Even further catching my attention was the specifications for the animal to be sacrificed. An ox was usually used for the sin offering. For the Day of Atonement, two goats were brought for the nation of Israel. One was sacrificed on the altar and the other was

brought to the Priest. He would lay hands on the goat (confessing and transferring Israel’s sins upon the goat) and then the goat was taken to the wilderness and released (facing a certain death).

But the Passover sacrifice really drew me in. That was the day Israel would slay the lamb, 1year old, perfect with no defects. The blood would be placed on the door posts. The animal would be roasted whole, no bones broken and eaten that night. The symbolism was that the death angel in Egypt would slay the firstborn in all households except the ones with the lamb’s blood on the door posts.

A lamb delivered the Hebrews from death. A lamb delivers us from an eternal death. The lamb sacrificed had be a firstborn, a year old with no blemish. Second best would not do. It had to come from an individual’s flock costing him personally (labor of caring, feeding, protecting,

etc.).

I know this is probably more than you ever wanted to know about sacrifices and you are probably wondering what this has to do with Christmas. Bear with me a little longer. Two things came out of this inquisition of mine.

First was the responsibility of the Priest in examining the animal. He would look very closely at the animal. He would look for the elements that made it correct for the sacrifice. Then he would look even closer for any imperfections that would disqualify the animal from being sacrificed. Any defects found and the Priest would return the animal and tell the individual he would have to get another one. Funny, the Priest looked at the sacrifice but never the one bringing the sacrifice.

Second, Jesus was our lamb. John the Baptist even called Jesus the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29) It was Jesus’ blood that was shed for our sins. As the death angel passed over a.m.

the houses marked with the blood of the lamb, so all who have confessed sins and Jesus as Lord of their life will escape an eternal death separated from God.

Jesus was our Passover lamb. He was the firstborn Son of God, He was perfect, had no blemishes/sin (lived a sinless life). God sent His Son in human form as an offering for us (John 3:16). Even Isaiah tells us of Jesus’ death (a sheep led to slaughter). And upon the cross none of the bones of Jesus were broken. This offering of a sheep cost God. It cost God His Son.

So as I was pondering all this and listening to the song Away in a Manger, it seems only fitting that the Lamb Of God, born into the world to take away our sins, was to be born in a manger, a feed trough for a sheep and later discovered by a group of shepherds who proclaimed the message the angels had told them of this birth! Just something to think about this Christmas.

Merry Christmas, Bro. Tim

SUNDAY Sunday school 9:45 a.m. Sunday morning worship service