One time I was at a camp in Romania by the mountains. We were staying at a holiday cabin in a tiny village. To get to where some of the people were staying, it was necessary to take a short walk. While walking one morning, I noticed that to my left in the field there was a pig lying with its feet in the air. Alongside were some people, one of whom had what looked like a blow torch in hand. A little later someone brought some pig’s skin over for us to try. I managed to convince an American lady to try it by saying that it was Romanian style pancake (which I guess that it sort of was!).

I guess this is as close as I have ever been to seeing an animal sacrificed. If, however I had lived in ancient times, I suppose animal sacrifices would have been a much more common occurrence. The Bible talks a lot about this. Interesting, even the first two people born, Cain and Abel, seem to have had a concept of bringing sacrifices to God.

Cain was a farmer and brought some of the things he had grown. Abel on the other hand was a shepherd and brought some of his flock. In Genesis 4:3-5 we are told about this. Here we see that there was a significant difference between the offerings that Cain and Abel brought to God.

Abel brought ‘fat portions’ from ‘firstborn’ animals. This suggests that he brought the best he had. In terms of Cain’s offering, it just says that he brought ‘some of the fruits of the soil.’ We then see that the Lord was pleased with Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s. From this, we can deduce that Cain just offered what he didn’t need, maybe some left over produce or somethings that were deformed or going bad. In any case, he seems to have brought the sacrifice just for the sake of it, whereas Abel appears to have made a true sacrifice from the heart.

By its very nature, the concept of sacrifice means giving up something, however there is obviously a temptation as humans to sacrifice that which we don’t really need. Later on in the Bible, in Leviticus 22, there is passage which talks about unacceptable sacrifices. Here, it is made clear that God’s people aren’t allowed to bring any old sacrifice to God. The sacrifice was meant to be a male animal without defect, not just a way of getting rid of a sick, unwanted animal.

This concept is illustrated in 2 Samuel 24. Here David has sinned because he decided to take a census of the fighting men in Israel. He insists on this in spite of Joab’s protest. So, the census is carried out, but then David realises that he has sinned. Presumably, the sin was that by counting the fighting men, David was putting his trust in them, instead of God. The consequence of all this is that a plague comes on Israel. The prophet Gad then comes to David and tells him to go and make an altar to the Lord to resolve the problem.

David goes where he is told and wants to buy the piece of land so that he can make the sacrifices required. The owner of the threshing floor, Araunah, however offers to give it for free to David. As a result, in 2 Samuel 24:24 David makes a very telling statement. ‘I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.’ Again, we see the concept of true sacrifices being those that cost the offerer something.  

I heard an illustration once about a rich man who put a large amount of money in a church collection. A deacon of the church offered it back to him, thinking that it was too much and maybe a mistake. The rich man said though that he was very wealthy and that actually for him it wasn’t such a lot of money. When the deacon told the church’s pastor though, the pastor told him to give the money back because at their church they only wanted sacrifices that cost.

In conclusion, Jesus says something similar to this at the beginning of Luke 21. Here we see him commend the widow, who although she only puts a small amount in the temple collection, relatively speaking she had put in a lot compared to the rich people who, although they probably gave expensive gifts, were actually only giving a small percentage of what they had. The widow gave everything and so that shows that she was truly trusting in God and giving out of love.   

Cain is very angry about the fact that his sacrifice is not accepted. God gives him the opportunity to repent of this anger and do what is right. However, his response is to kill his brother and then to try and cover it up. Interestingly, the first human born, murders the second human born, and we see the words of God in Genesis chapter 2, that death would enter the world if humans ate of the fruit of the tee of knowledge of good and evil,  begin to come true. So, we see that something that in Genesis 3 seemed small and insignificant, such as eating fruit, has led to very serious consequences.

A story is told of a man who while on holiday in South Africa decided to ignore the warning that there were sharks in the water and go for a swim anyway. As a result, one of the sharks bit him and he lost a leg and could have died. Likewise, the Bible very clearly warns against sin, however often we choose to ignore those warnings, thinking that there’s no harm in a little thing like going swimming, however we are risking getting bitten.

Genesis 4 gives a sign of hope though. At the end of the chapter we see that Eve gives birth to another son, Seth. He takes Abel’s place. This idea of substitution is also an important one throughout the Bible.

As mentioned, before the sacrifices that people were supposed to bring to God, are instructed in Leviticus to be male and without defect. This is because in the New Testament, Jesus, a man without sin came into the world. He came to sacrifice His life in our place. So, just as in one sense Abel’s death gave rise to Seth’s life, Jesus’ death gives us the chance of a new life.

So, what should our response to be to this offer? Some people still have the concept that we need to bring sacrifices to God today. There are probably still cultures out there where animal sacrifices are given. In the modern western world though, this type of sacrifice has been long forgotten. People still try though to bring other types of sacrifice, whether it be time, energy, money or other resources. However, Hebrews 7:27 very clearly states that Jesus sacrificed himself once and for all. His sacrifice was the supreme sacrifice which resolved the problem of sin and so we don’t need to add to this sacrifice other sacrifices.

The Bible does nevertheless talk about offering to God a sacrifice of thanks (Psalm 50:14) and offering our bodies as a living sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1). In other words, if we have received the benefit of Jesus’ sacrifice into our lives, that is the new life that He offers, we should then live for Him out of gratitude for what He has done for us.

For a number of years, I have travelled regularly to Alunis, a small village twenty or so kilometres from where I live in Moldova. There was a period when we got up early on a Saturday morning to go and run a children’s club. This wasn’t always easy, partly because of the children’s misbehave, but also because of the conditions there. In winter, it was often warmer outside than inside the church, for example. Sometimes I thought to myself that it would be easier to not go there. And it would have been. However, God calls us sometimes to do things that are not easy or comfortable for us. This then is our sacrifice of thanks to Him.