Consider this passage…

²¹ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. ²² For 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. ²³ But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ ²⁴ Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. ²⁵ Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. ²⁶ Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.

Jeremiah 7:21-26, NKJV (emphasis mine)

It’s interesting to read this. Did not God command all sorts of sacrifices for the Israelites when they left Egypt? Let’s look at a quick outline of Exodus…

1. Ch. 1-3 — Moses is called
2. Ch. 4-11 — Moses vs. Pharaoh
3. Ch. 12 — The Passover and the 10th plague
4. Ch. 13 — The Feast of Unleavened Bread and the law of the 1st born
5. Ch. 14-15 — Crossing the Red Sea; bitter water made sweet
6. Ch. 16 — Bread from heaven
7. Ch. 17 — Water from the rock; victory over the Amalekites
8. Ch. 18 — Jethro’s advice
9. Ch. 19 — Mount Sinai; thunders, lightning, loud trumpet, the people trembled (Pentecost, 50 days after Passover)
10. Ch. 20 — The 10 Commandments; the people are afraid and want God to speak through Moses; God warns them not to make idols/false gods, and commands them to build an alter for burnt offerings and peace offerings
11. Ch. 21 — Laws concerning Hebrew slaves; laws concerning violence; animal control laws
12. Ch. 22 — Responsibility for property; moral and ceremonial principles
13. Ch. 23 — Justice for all, sabbath laws; three annual feasts; the Angel and the promises
14. Ch. 24 — Israel affirms the covenant
15. Ch. 25 — Gifts for the sanctuary; instructions for the tabernacle furniture
16. Ch. 26-28 — Instructions for tabernacle
17. Ch. 29 — Aaron and his sons consecrated; daily offerings
18. Ch. 30-31 — More tabernacle instructions
19. Ch. 32 — The golden calf incident
20. Ch. 33 — Leave Sinai; Moses meets with God and sees His glory
21. Ch. 34 — New tablets; the covenant is renewed
22. Ch 35-39 — The tabernacle is erected and God’s glory enters

In Exodus 24, Israel affirms a covenant with God. Verse 7 says: Then [Moses] took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient.” A Book of the Covenant is mentioned. What was contained in this book? Presumably it was everything God told Moses after Israel arrived at Mount Sinai, all of Exodus chapters 20-23. This was the covenant God made with Israel, which they broke when they made the golden calf (Exodus 32).

³¹ “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— ³² not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.”

Jeremiah 31:31-32, NKJV (emphasis mine)

Before the covenant made in chapter 24, only one sacrifice was commanded by God: the Passover lamb…

In Exodus 12, the Israelites are commanded to sacrifice a lamb and spread some of its blood around the door to their homes. Christians, of course, will point to this event and relate it to Jesus, which is true. But, let’s put ourselves in the sandals of the Israelite slaves here — what did it mean to them? Firstly, the lamb was an animal worshiped by the Egyptians. To kill one and spread its blood all about would have been detestable to the Egyptians, and thus dangerous to do for the Israelites (see Exodus 8:25-27). Therefore, to obey God in this situation was a display of faith and righteousness. Do I fear the LORD, or the Egyptians?

Secondly, the image of the Passover is revealing. Picture an Israelite family shut into their small home, with the only way out being an opening covered in blood. It is a birth — a new birth for the people of Israel, leaving their old lives behind and beginning a new life with a new Father.

Coupled with the Passover lamb is God’s command to consecrate all of the firstborn to Him. However, this is a sacrifice for the future, after they enter the land of Canaan, and it is to be done as a remembrance of how God redeemed them from slavery (see Exodus 13).

The other sacrifice made before the finalization of the chapter 24 covenant was the cutting of the covenant itself…

In Exodus 20:22-26, Moses was given instructions about an alter, and burnt offerings and peace offerings of sheep and oxen, although no further details were given about those offerings at that time. The first we see of Moses building and using an alter is in chapter 24 when the covenant between God and Israel is cut. Burnt offerings and peace offerings were made, and the blood of the oxen was first sprinkled on the altar (which I believe stood for God in the affirmation of the covenant). Then the Book of the Covenant was read, and the people agreed to obey the LORD. Then Moses sprinkled the blood on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.” (24:8) This whole event was a covenantal ceremony — nothing more, nothing less.

Once the covenant was finalized, Moses, the priests, and elders went part way up the mountain to share a meal with God (24:9-11). After that, Moses alone went higher up the mountain, into the glory cloud, to meet with God and receive the tablets of stone. Here we see the pattern which the Israelites would take with them at the completion of the tabernacle construction: the alter at the foot of the mountain = the alter outside the tabernacle; the meal eaten by the priests half way up the mountain = the Holy Place; and the top of the mountain where God was = the Holy of Holies.

In conclusion, we see that God was mainly concerned with obedience and faithfulness when He brought Israel out of Egypt, as the people agreed to when the covenant was cut (Ex. 24:7). The only sacrifices we see before and into the formation of that covenant were practical and ceremonial, and were focused on Israel’s new birth out of Egypt and new life with God. This then is what God spoke of in the words of Jeremiah 7:21-26.

Of course, as we continue to read beyond Exodus 24, there are more sacrifices which Israel had to perform regularly. Why these sacrifices? Did God really want them? But, I will have to deal with all of that in a different article. (And did deal with it somewhat in this article: Problems With Penal Substitutionary Atonement.)

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