Looking Unto Jesus

09 THE SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM

AS soon, however, as man by transgression of the moral law, had become a sinner and needed a Saviour, it pleased God to set forth in type and shadow the Saviour who was to come; and another law, the law of types, shadows, and carnal ordinances, was introduced to regulate the worship of man with the use of these symbols. Immediately outside the gates of Eden, the smoke of sacrifice began to ascend to heaven. This was the origin and the beginning of the universal practise of offering up sacrifices in this world. Sacrifices were of divine appointment, and designed for a most important end. But how sadly have they been perverted from their original design. To what a senseless farce and cruel mockery has the enemy of all righteousness degraded them. Altars are reared, and blood freely flows in all lands; for in his inmost nature man bears a painful sense that he is guilty, and that expiation must in some way be made for his sins. But the blood of animals never can take away sins. Hiding from men’s minds the true God; introducing gods according to conceptions of the human heart, vengeful and abominable; deceiving them as to the end to be accomplished by sacrifices; loading the service with cruelty, and fouling it with lust, how has the enemy turned into a dark and appalling curse, what was first given to men to meet a necessity of their nature, and open a channel through which faith could lay hold upon a living Saviour! LUJ 52.1

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It was in such faith as this that sacrifices were offered in the beginning. Of the first offerings of which a record remains, we read these words: “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.” Hebrews 11:4. Turning back to the original record in Genesis 4:3-9, we learn at once in what respect Abel’s sacrifice was more excellent than Cain’s. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground; but Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock. What Cain brought may have been, in itself considered, of as much value, and as beautiful, as the offering of Abel. But an essential feature of a true offering, such as God could accept, was lacking: there was no blood in it; it was but the fruit of the ground. But Abel offered blood which alone could typify a Redeemer who was to come and shed his blood for mankind; for “without shedding of blood is no remission.” LUJ 53.1

Abel’s sacrifice showed faith in such a Redeemer, and was pleasing to God. Cain’s did not; for it was a bloodless offering, and God could not, therefore, accept it. In Cain’s offering, faith, which was the soul and essence of the whole sacrificial system, did not appear; and hence that offering had no merit. Where faith was wanting, the service became a hollow mockery. And because God accepted Abel’s service, presented in his own prescribed way, and did not accept the wilful and faithless ceremony of Cain, Cain was angry and turned his wrath against Abel, and slew him. Here was the beginning of the controversy between the followers of truth and the slaves of error; and it has gone forward ever since on the same line: all who have been persecuted for the truth’s sake have been represented by Abel; while all persecutors have been the children of Cain, and will be so to the end of PICTURE AND TEXT
time. And the principle involved always has been, and always will be, the same. It is clearly set forth by the apostle John in these words: “Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.” 1 John 3:12. LUJ 53.2

In the Jewish economy the system of types and shadows, sacrifices and offerings, was elaborated to its greatest perfection. In the preceding ages, when each man was patriarch of his own family, men had shown their faith in the coming Saviour, by their family sacrifices, offered according to the lesson handed down from Eden. But the time had now come for a more complete and definite object-lesson to be set before the world. The sons of Jacob went down into Egypt, a single family; they came out, a great nation. God took them as his people, and entered into so close a relation with them, that he represented himself as being married to them; for, reproaching their ingratitude, he says, “Although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord.” Jeremiah 31:32. He could now organize a theocracy in the world, and set among the nations a visible kingdom of his own, to hold up his name and truth before all lands. He made a covenant with them, engaging to make them a holy nation, a peculiar people, and set them at the head among all kingdoms, as his special treasure, if they would obey his voice and keep his covenant. Exodus 19:5, 6. This would be the only fitting position for them to occupy as his representatives in the earth. They proved grievously unstable in their promises, and prone to apostasy. Exodus 32. But Nehemiah assures us that the Lord did not forsake nor cast them off for this, but showed himself long-suffering and compassionate toward them, and still went forward with the work he designed to accomplish through them. Nehemiah 9:12-25, 31, 32. He made them the depositaries of his law, by committing to them the lively oracles (the decalogue of ten living commandments). Acts 7:38. He then caused them to make him a dwelling-place, and carry it with them in their journeyings, that he might dwell among them, and go with them and give them rest. Exodus 33:14. And when they were at length put in possession of the promised land, it was in accordance with the covenant made with them at Sinai. Exodus 23:27; Deuteronomy 11:25; Joshua 1:3-7; 21:44, 45. LUJ 54.1