The symbolism of sacrifices

In sacrifices we offer of our substance, because ultimately we are offering ourselves. Work is an extension of us, and self-sacrifice is built into us because it is built into God, whose image we are. Each Person of the Godhead empties himself into the others, and receives back twice in return. That is where the pattern of sacrifice, of self-giving, originates.

But notice that it is self-giving. This is important because, specifically in theology, we so often think of sacrifice as exactly the opposite of self-giving:

We (wrongly) think of sacrifice as giving something instead of ourselves.

Wasn’t the sacrificial system of Israel a system of substitution — of giving external things in place of the believer? The animal dies in place of you? But this is not the substance of substitution, but a picture of it. The animal represents you. So the sacrificial system was not meant to teach the Israelites about giving up something in place of themselves. It was meant to teach them about giving themselves up in place of others.

Think of Abigail coming to David to deflect his fury from her fool of a husband:

And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and went down from her he-ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground. And she fell at his feet, and said: Upon me, my lord, upon me be the iniquity; and let thy she-slave, I pray thee, speak in thine ears, and hear thou the words of thy she-slave. Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this worthless fellow, even Nabal; for as his name is, so is he; Fool is his name, and folly is with him: but I thy she-slave saw not the youngsters of my lord, whom thou didst send. Now therefore, my lord, as Yahweh liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing Yahweh hath withholden thee from bloodguiltiness, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now therefore let thine enemies, and them that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal. And now this blessing which thy servant hath brought unto my lord, let it be given unto the young men that follow my lord. (1 Sa 25:23–27)

Abigail presents a great gift from her house to David: 200 loaves, two jars of wine, five sheep, five measures of roasted grain, 100 bunches of raisins, and 200 balls of figs (v. 18). But it is easy to see she is not just giving up goods, but her very self, as a substitute for her husband:

“Upon me be the iniquity… Forgive, I pray thee, the trespass of thy she-slave.”

It is equally clear (though perhaps not as obvious at first blush), that she is also giving up herself for David. She is sacrificing herself for both men. She turns away David’s wrath not just for Nabal’s sake, but for his own. Look at how she continues:

Bear, I pray thee, the transgression of thy she-slave: for Yahweh will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fighteth the battles of Yahweh; and evil shall not be found in thee all thy days. And though men be risen up to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul, yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with Yahweh thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as from the hollow of a sling. And it shall come to be, when Yahweh shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee principal over Israel, that this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offense of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood without cause, or that my lord hath avenged himself. (1 Sa 25:28–31)

It is very clear that Abigail is as concerned to protect David’s righteousness, by preventing him from avenging himself, as she is to protect her husband’s righteousness, by offering the gift on his behalf that he should have given to begin with.

She does both by an act of self-giving, of sacrifice.

Where did she learn to do this? It is not natural behavior, is it? Like Hannah, who gave the fruit of her body to the Lord, the scriptures bid us to consider that these holy women learned the sacrificial way of life from participating in the sacrificial system of Israel. It is there that they learned: the essence of sacrifice is self-giving.

Because the Spirit of God drew them and taught them through the Levitical sacrifices that he instituted, they were able to discern that the external, object-oriented nature of the sacrificial system was about the internal, subject-oriented nature of true sacrifice. As Eugene Terekhin recently wrote, the outside is inside, and the inside is outside. These women were able to see that the sacrificial system was a picture of sacrifice, not the substance of it.

By contrast, Yahweh is greatly displeased with those Israelites who are unable to discern this foundational truth about the sacrifices that he gave them. Most of Israel, in their hardness of heart, took his gracious sacrificial system and turned it to precisely the opposite end than he had given it for. They twisted their feasts into a way of avoiding self-sacrifice, a way of limiting what they gave up to only the externals — as if flesh and flour and oil and wine could be a substitute for their very selves. And so God tells them through Amos:

I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no delight in your assemblies. Yea, though ye offer me your ascensions and tributes, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the fellowships of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy harps. And let justice roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. (Am 5:21–24)

The substance of this sacrifice, of course, is fulfilled in Christ. The Lord Jesus gave not some object, not some animal, not food or drink, nor wealth, in sacrifice to God. He gave himself.

So the external elements of sacrifice in scripture represent us, they are extensions of ourselves — they are meant to teach us about sacrificing ourselves. By giving up some external thing to God, we are really learning to give up ourselves to God, and to do it on behalf of others. I do not mean that we can pay for anyone’s sins. Only Christ can do that — I hope it goes without saying. We cannot replicate his propitiation. But we are to replicate the character which produced it, and the pattern that it followed. We are to give ourselves for others in the ways that we are able, as Christ gave himself as he was able. This is what Paul means when he writes to the Colossians:

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and do fill up the things lacking of the tribulations of the Christ in my flesh for his body, which is the congregation. (Col 1:24)