This was Isaiah’s plea twenty-seven hundred years ago. He was bringing a word from the Lord to the Children of Israel who would not give up their blood sacrificial religious rituals.
Moses had written specific details in his laws regarding the types of animals to be sacrificed for various trespasses, and the people were dead set on believing that Moses had received every single word directly from God.
However, Isaiah challenged those words and ended up being cut in half with a saw by men who refused to listen.
What does this have to do with the Christian?
Everything, because the belief that God requires blood to remediate for sin has carried over into this current era. It was set in stone by Paul in Hebrews chapter 9.
Did Christ teach to sacrifice?
No, he did not. His message was, good news the kingdom of God is at hand, and he showed the power of God, while contrasting it to the religious leaders who practiced blood sacrifice.
One entity was from God, and one entity was not.
It’s that simple. Christ never taught his disciples to sacrifice.
He told the leper to go offer the sacrifice that Moses commanded as a witness to the religious leaders that the leper had been healed.
Besides not including blood sacrifice in his teachings, Yeshua’s outburst in the temple speaks volumes about how he viewed animal sacrifice. He turned over the money tables, and set all the animals free.
Those animals were being purchased during the Passover for people to sacrifice for their sins. In addition to driving out all the animals, it is recorded that Yeshua would not allow anyone to carry “vessels” through the temple.
Those vessels were specific containers to carry the blood of the sacrificial animal to the priest so that he could sprinkle the blood on the altar.
How Christ ever got turned into a blood sacrificial religion is mind blowing, and I’m here today, just like Isaiah, to say come let us reason.
God does not want blood sacrifice.
David said it, Hosea said it, Isaiah said it clearly, and Jeremiah said it clearest of all.
In Psalms chapter 51:17-19 in the Hebrew Bible, David wrote:
O Lord, open my lips and let my mouth declare your praise. You do not want me to bring sacrifices; You do not desire burnt offerings. True sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; God, you will not despise a contrite and crushed heart.
Hosea wrote in chapter 6:6 of the Hebrew Bible:
“For I desire goodness, not sacrifice; Obedience to God rather than burnt offerings.“
After a very dramatic greeting, Isaiah wrote in chapter 1 of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible:
The Lord says, “what need have I of all your sacrifices?” “I am sated with burnt offerings of rams, and suet of fatlings, and blood of bulls. I have no delight in lambs and he-goats. That you come to appear before Me—Who asked this of you? Trample my courts no more; Bringing oblations is futile…”
“Your hands are stained with crime. Wash yourselves clean. Put your evil doings away from my sight. Cease to do evil; learn to do good. Devote yourselves to justice, aid the wronged, uphold the rights of the orphan, defend the cause of the widow.“
Before I quote Jeremiah, it has to be understood that the burnt offering was always offered up completely to God. It was never eaten, and Jeremiah wrote in chapter 7 of the Hebrew Bible:
Thus said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your other offerings and eat the meat! For when I freed your Fathers from the land of Egypt, I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings or sacrifice.“
“But this is what I commanded them: Do my bidding, that I may be your God and you may be My people: walk only in the way that I enjoin upon you, that it may go well with you.“
Sadly, Jeremiah was stoned to death by men who did not want to hear the words that contradicted Moses, and the practice continued, despite the words of David and the prophets.
Therefore, summing up David, Hosea, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, God clearly does not want blood sacrifice.
Instead, He desires contrite spirits and humble hearts. God wants goodness and ones devoted to doing justice by doing His bidding to aid the wronged and to uphold the rights of ones in need that He may be our God and we can be His people.
Come let us reason.
If God doesn’t delight in blood sacrifice, then why is it believed that He would require the blood of the human sacrifice of Christ?
The answer is simple.
He didn’t. God never required any blood sacrifice.
Both, Moses and Paul were wrong.