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God rejects the
sacrificial system insistently. He asks: “To what purpose is the
multitude of your sacrifices to me? I have had enough of burnt
offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the
blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats. When you come to appear before
me, who has required this from your hand?” (Isa 1:11-12).

Who, indeed,
required it? It was Moses and not God. Jeremiah writes: “Thus says the
LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘I did not speak to your fathers, or
command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt,
concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices'” (Jer 7:21-22).

Worthless sacrifices

God states
categorically through Hosea: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and
acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hos 6:6). But most
Christians just ignore such declarations.

God is not a
blood-guzzling vampire. He asks: “Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink
the blood of goats?” (Ps 50:13). Sacrifices mean nothing to God. He
says this unequivocally: “I have no need of a bull from your stall or
of goats from your pens” (Ps 50:9). “Your burnt offerings are not
acceptable; your sacrifices do not please me” (Jer 6:20).

God forgave David’s
murder of Uriah without any sacrifices. David declares: “You do not
delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in
burnt offerings” (Ps 51:16). He repeats this in his messianic psalm:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have
opened; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require” (Ps
40:6).

However, the ears
of many Christians have yet to be opened. We are adamant God requires
Jesus’ sacrificial death as atonement for sins.

Pagan sacrifices

God even uses very
strong language to reject sacrifices. He says: “He who kills a bull is
as if he slays a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as if he breaks a dog’s
neck; he who offers a grain offering, as if he offers swine’s blood; he
who burns incense, as if he blesses an idol” (Isa 66:3). This shows the
sacrificial system is totally objectionable to God.

Sacrifices are
ritualistic. When a man sins, he gives a sacrifice and assumes this
takes care of his sin-problem. In effect, sacrifices are “bribes” given
every-so-often to placate a demanding deity; without the burden of
repentance for sins. Therefore, God declares to Israel: “Bring no more
futile sacrifices” (Isa 1:13).

Sacrifices come
from the perversion of those who claim the gods need to be appeased
with violent and bloody death. It is the way of the idol-worshipper;
therefore, according to kingdom dynamics, it cannot be of God.

What does the one
true God require instead? David provides the answer: “The sacrifices of
God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart- these, O God,
you will not despise” (Ps 51:17). Solomon concurs: “To do righteousness
and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice” (Prov 21:3).

Human sacrifices

Of all Israel’s
sins, none was more abominable than the sacrifice of the first-born.
God said in admonishment: “You took your sons and daughters whom you
bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was your
prostitution not enough?” (Eze 16:20).

This heinous ritual
is lambasted by Micah who asks sardonically: “Shall I give my firstborn
for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
(Mic 6:7). The abomination of human sacrifice was one of the reasons
why God sent the Israelites into Babylonian captivity: “They sacrificed
their sons and daughters in the fire. So the LORD was very angry with
Israel and removed them from his presence” (2 Kg 17:17/18).

Why then would God himself turn around only to offer his Son Jesus as a human sacrifice to himself?

Testimony of Jesus

Jesus demonstrated
his disdain for sacrifices by smashing the sacrificial implements in
the temple. He maintains the kingdom imperative is to love God and our
neighbour instead of giving burnt-offerings and sacrifices (Mk
12:28-34).

As a matter of
fact, Jesus blames his crucifixion on the diabolical sacrificial
mindset. He said to the Pharisees: “If you had known what this means,
‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the
guiltless” (Mt 12:7). Since he was the guiltless who would be
wrongfully condemned, he thereby foretold Caiaphas’ devious counsel to
sacrifice him for the nation of Israel (Jn 11:49-53).

Furthermore, Jesus
gives this directive to all God-seekers: “Go and learn what this means:
‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice'” (Mt 9:13). However, most Christians
refuse to learn. Worse still, we continue to insist Jesus himself was a
sacrifice.

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