Saturday, July 28, 2012

A closer glance at the essence of sacrifice and worship

Sacrifice in the Old Testament seemed to slowly transform into a means of "meriting" God's favor - the fallacy was contrived that the more sacrifices were given and the more extravagant the ceremony, it was assumed the more that God would shower blessings down on the congregation. But this is most certainly not the case in Scripture, as the prophet Hosea records, "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6), and in the penitential psalm, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (Psalm 51:17). There apparently is something of the essence of sacrifice that the people of Israel had missed...or forgotten.

Geerhardus Vos in his Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments writes:
The altar is in fact a house of God, a tabernacle in miniature. Hence it is described as the place where God records His "Name", and meets with His people (Exodus 20:24)...Without the altar there would be no sacrifice. This coming upon the altar is a most significant thing: it means the direct consumption of the sacrifice by Jehovah, for Jehovah dwells in the altar.(1)
There is something deeply immanent and personal in the way the holy, transcendent God dealt with his people in the idea of sacrifice (and in a similar manner, still deals with us today). He meets with men. He dwells in their midst. C.S. Lewis puts it this way in his Reflections on the Psalms:
Even in Judaism the essence of the sacrifice was not really that men gave bulls and goats to God, but that by their so doing God gave Himself to men; in the central act of our own worship of course this is far clearer - there it is manifestly, even physically, God who gives and we who receive.(2)
(1) Vos, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments. Banner of Truth, 2007, pgs. 55 and 57.
(2) Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms. Harcourt, 1986, pg. 93.

See also my short post on "The transcendent God draws near - a reason for worship". I've also gone into more detail about these topics of the Old Testament altar, the nature of God's presence, and our reverent posture and response in worship in "The Altar and God's Presence".

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