The Way It Was in Ancient Israel

The events surrounding the story of ancient Israel’s Exodus from Egypt makes it clear that Israel was chosen by God to engage in His worship.  God intended relationship based on worship.  Yet, the idea of worship goes back even further in the history of mankind.  Genesis describes various activities of worship by a number of people.

However, the English word for worship does not appear in the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible until Genesis 22 when Abraham traveled to a special mount where he was to “sacrifice” his son Isaac.

Genesis 22:5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.

By the time we get to the end of Genesis, we find additional accounts of “worship” activities.  One of the most common activities was sacrifice.

Thousands of years ago, God promised a special relationship with Him to “the Fathers,” Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their future generations.  God’s desire for this relationship with the children of Israel was enormous!

God had set up the foundations for this relationship with ancient Israel years before their arrival in Egypt.  By reviewing the events in Exodus, we find that Abraham’s descendants went eventually into bondage in Egypt; becoming slaves to the Egyptians.  In the midst of their trial and turmoil, they cried out for deliverance and freedom.

Let us recall that God wanted ancient Israel to leave from Egypt and to sacrifice to Him as an act of worship.  This is the message that Moses and the elders of Israel delivered to Pharaoh.

Exodus 3:18 And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.

Of course, we are aware that Pharaoh would not cooperate.  God surely knew what Pharaoh would say! (Exodus 5:2). It was all part of God’s plan to completely deliver Israel and show Israel WHO HE IS – the only TRUE GOD.  It was all part of His plan to BE ISRAEL’S GOD and for them to BE HIS HOLY PEOPLE.  It was all part of His plan to create a special relationship.  It is by a proper relationship with God in True Worship that distinguishes the people of God from all other people.  True Worship is a clear and irrefutable sign that there is a powerful connection with the Divine.

Worship Has Had a Number of Forms

 In the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, we find a very complex and detailed set of directions as part of worship for Israel.  In addition to praying, bowing the head, kneeling, or prostrating oneself, worship also included numerous forms of offering and sacrifice.

The first five books of the Bible show just how important the idea of sacrifice was to the worship of God long ago.  While Israel was camped at the foot of Mt. Horeb in the Sinai desert, God gave very thorough and specific instructions on how He would expect Israel to begin to worship Him as part of what we now call the Old Covenant.  He followed an important physical pattern that reflected a heavenly reality (Hebrews 8:5 and Hebrews 9:23).

Hebrews 8:5 Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

Hebrews 9:23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

God gave the meticulously detailed plans for the portable tabernacle, the altar, all of the furnishings, the sacrifices and gifts, the priest’s attire, and many other key details to Moses who directed the work.  In the book of Hebrews we learn that Moses did the assigned work faithfully.

Hebrews 3:5 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;

Everything God does, He does with forethought and purpose.  It is important to realize that God always accomplishes what He says He will do (Isaiah 55:11).  God had promised to bring Israel into a very special relationship with Him, and worship was central to that relationship and the promises God had attached to it.

The Way It Is and Will Be

Even so, in these last days, God wants His people to be in a special relationship with Him.  He desires it greatly and has paid the Treasure Above All Treasures (the life of His Son, Jesus the Christ) for that relationship.

While God makes wonderful promises to those in this intimate relationship with Him, He also has established what He requires of us.  We are to BE HIS HOLY PEOPLE!

Deuteronomy 7:6 For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

Deuteronomy14:2 For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.

1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;

God is currently seeking worshippers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.

What a privilege!  What a calling!  What a responsibility!  What a wonderful, spiritual connection to the TRUE GOD!  It is the relationship God deeply desires.

God Set the Pattern into Motion

Through the millennia, God has made covenants with specific people and ratified these covenants with animal sacrifice (as in Genesis 8:20 and Exodus 24).  In the beginning, it was God Himself Who set His worship by sacrifice in motion.  We get the first hint of this pattern of worship in Genesis 3.

Blood Sacrifice Is Tied to Sin’s Penalty

Notice that in the story of Adam and Eve, we learn that God walked in the Garden with them.  This continued until they sinned.  By sinning, Adam and Eve broke the peace and fellowship they had enjoyed with God. Genesis 2 and 3 describe the story of their relationship and how they lost it and were finally expelled from of the Garden.  Not only did their sins end the close fellowship with God, it also brought about the judgment of death.

It is clear from the first few chapters of Genesis that it was God Who made the animal skin covering for the first human sinners.  Think about it!  For God to make those skin coverings, God had to shed the first animal blood. When God shed animal blood, worship through animal sacrifice began.

Genesis 3:21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them

The blood sacrifice cost an animal’s life. It was the first of many such animal sacrifices.  God required it at that time, and He also added rituals and animal sacrifice to the covenant He made with ancient Israel at Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19-24, and the Book of Leviticus).  In fact, the Bible records that Noah, Abraham and others also participated in worship through animal sacrifice (Genesis 8:20 and 15:9-18).

God required the life of the sacrificial animal for a number of reasons that He has made clear through other Bible passages.  One of the most important of these reasons is that there is prophetic significance in that first blood sacrifice and the making of a covering of skins for Adam and Eve.

Animal sacrifice was not the only way that ancient Israel worshipped God, however, it became a very central part of Israel’s worship.  Worshipping God by animal sacrifice continued for many centuries; the Old Testament is filled with multiple examples.

Worship by animal sacrifice continued until the Ultimate Sacrifice of the blood of God’s Perfect Lamb, Jesus the Christ, was shed.  Today, it is by the blood of this Perfect Sacrifice, and only by this blood of the Perfect, Sinless Lamb, that anyone can enter into a covenant of salvation with God and have access to God.

Blood Sacrifice Is Tied to Sin’s Penalty and Jesus’ Sacrifice

God’s covering of Adam and Eve by giving them animal skins was a watershed, prophetic moment pointing to a Perfect Passover blood covering for mankind that would take about 4000 years to bring to fulfillment.

All of the bloody sacrifices made to God in the past are a mere foreshadowing of this awesome, Perfect Sacrifice of Jesus.

Hebrews 10:4-5 (4) For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. (5) Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:

That “body” in Hebrews is referring to Jesus Christ.  God prepared that Body…that very special, One-of-a-Kind Body!  This is an often over-looked aspect of God’s Perfect Sacrifice – the fact that God, Himself, was involved in preparing the Perfect blood Sacrifice. Yes, God did this!  Both Father and Son are responsible for this Unique and Priceless Sacrifice!

In John 3:16 we learn why God did it.  It is because He “so loved the world.”  It is astounding to realize that this Sacrifice was conceived and put into an immutable plan before the foundation of the world.  LOVE provided the Way for mankind to have an everlasting life with the Eternal God.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Revelation 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him [Jesus]; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Both the Father and the Son paid this overwhelming generous price to save the world.  The Sacrifice required Jesus’ life and His life’s blood.  Through that blood, sin’s penalty is paid and God has provided sinners who repent with a covering.  The Sacrifice that God prepared is the most costly and precious investment that has ever been made. Selah!