We see animal-blood sacrifice right from the beginning of the Bible. God kills an animal to clothe Adam and Eve just after they have sinned and eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The fact that God had to kill an animal to clothe them and that animal-blood sacrifice is later shown to be a way to approach God, suggests that God himself initiated the idea of animal sacrifice. "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them."[Genesis 3:21 ]
Later, we see God accept Abel's animal sacrifice, but reject Cain's crop sacrifice. That fact seems to further indicate that animal sacrifice was a religious ritual that God himself started and expect mankind to obey. "And in the process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect..."[Genesis 4:3-5]
When Noah comes out of the ark, he also offers a blood sacrifice unto the Lord in thanksgiving. "And Noah built an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done."[Genesis 8:20-21]
As many have noted, the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed. While the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. The offering of a blood sacrifice for sin was a foreshadowing of Christ's death for the sins of man. Therefore, we can infer that God is the one who started the blood sacrifice right in the Garden of Eden. God killed an animal, we assume a lamb, to clothe Adam and Eve after they had sinned. They would no longer be able to live in the paradisaical Garden of Eden and would need clothing. The clothing could also be seen symbolically as God covering our sin. In order to cover man and his sin, blood had to be shed, an animal had to be sacrificed. Again, we see a fore shadowing of our Savour's sacrificial death on the cross.
After Noah, God confirms the animal sacrifice with Abraham. God tests Abraham's faith and asks him to sacrifice his son Isaac, the son of promise. "And (God) he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, who you love, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of,"[Genesis 22:2] As Abraham and Isaac were climbing the mount, Isaac observes that they have no sacrificial lamb with them. Abraham relies, "My son, God will supply himself a lamb for a burnt offering."[Genesis 22:8] You will remember that after Abraham passes the test, God provides a ram, caught in the thicket for Abraham to offer as a sacrifice. "And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by its horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son."[Genesis 22:13] We see a foreshadowing of Jesus' perfect sacrifice for sin in Abraham's words. to Isaac and in the ram provided.
At the time of the Exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt, God again commands them to kill a sacrificial lamb the night before they leave. They are ordered to take some of the lambs blood and paint their door posts. [Exodus 12:1-7] The reason being that, when the angel of death will pass over to smite the first born in Egypt, those with the blood of the lamb on their door posts will be saved from the sword of the angel. He will pass-over them, and their first-born will be safe. "For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt." [Exodus 12:12-13] Again, imagery of the blood of the lamb saving them from death.
While the Children of Israel are camping in the desert, God gives them various sacrificial commandments and procedures to fulfil. The Day of Atonement was especially important with special animal sacrifices.[Leviticus 16] One goat would be killed and his blood used in the cleansing of the High Priest and the Tabernacle. The other "scapegoat" would carry the sins of the people out into the wilderness. You can read more about that sacrifice on the following link. Both the goat that was killed, and the goat that carried away the sins of the people into the wilderness, were again a fore shadowing of what Jesus would accomplish. Back at Mount Sinai, Moses had sprinkled the people with blood from the sacrifices, and had said, "Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you." [Exodus 24:8] On the Day of Atonement there is some similar sprinkling of blood to cleanse the sanctuary and the congregation. Today we still sing the famous Christian song written by Elisha Hoffman in 1878: "Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?"[1]
The pagan practice of child or human sacrifice found in other cultures is an imitation of God's plan. The Devil can only try to imitate God and falls grossly short, as much as he may try. Just like with the Flood Legends from around the world, the Bible contains the true account of the worldwide flood. The other legends show a watered down or "telephone" version. The pagan version of sacrifice, that we see in the Aztecs and in many other cultures, represent the Devil's imitation and corruption of the truth of God's sacrificial system..
Interesting enough, the God of Molech was associated with wealth as parents sacrificed their child in the hope of Molech's financial or material blessing on their lives. In today's modern society, we use abortion to prevent unwanted children, who may cause economic difficulties to the parents or parent, or to society in general. Spiritually, the practice of abortion could be paralleled to the worship of Molech, the God of wealth and material blessings, a sad commentary on the so called modern world.[2]
But, Why, Dennis, did God have to use such a bloody sacrifice? Is God so sadistic? Couldn't He have used some different imagery, a different illustration? Did it have to be so gruesome?
First of all, God knows what He's doing. When Job questions God about the reasons for allowing Job to suffer so much, God asks Job, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" God goes on to ask Job numerous questions about the workings of the universe and nature. Job finally realises that God is almighty and knows what He is doing. Job responds, "Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth," Job 40:4. "I know that You can do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from You. ... Therefore, have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not," [Job] 42:2-3.
God is beyond our complete understanding. We have to trust Him, that He knows best when we don't understand what and why He is allowing us to experience what we are experiencing. In the case of the blood sacrifice, yes, it seems gruesome. However, God knows what He is doing. Apostle Paul tell us, "For whatsoever things were written a foretime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope," [Romans 15:4]. He also wrote, "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore, let him that thinks he stand take heed lest he fall." [1 Corinthians 10:11-12].
Further in Hebrews 10:1 we read, "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect." The point here is that the sacrifices in the Old Testament were a "shadow of things to come." A shadow is a copy, but without real substance. That's why those sacrifices had to be repeated yearly. The sacrifices couldn't really take away sin, but they were a fore shadowing of Him who would die for the sins of the world, who would carry away our sins into the wilderness. When John the Baptist introduces Jesus to his disciples and the crowds coming to him from beyond Jordan, he declares, "Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world," [John 1:29]. Two of John's disciple strait way understand what John means and follow Jesus, [John 1:37].
God chose the method of salvation before the creation of the world. Jesus is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," [Revelation 13:8b]. God word says, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul," [Leviticus 17:11]. "And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you concerning all these words," [Exodus 24:8]. God commanded Moses to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the people, covering them with the blood. All these acts were a fore shadowing of the ultimate sacrifice by the prophesized Seed. Jesus is the Seed that has and will bruise the head of Satan, as spoken by the Lord God in the Garden of Eden on the fall of Adam and Eve, [Genesis 3:15].
I think the gruesomeness of the sacrifice is to embed in us the seriousness of sin in God's eyes. That we not harden our hearts and minds to the seriousness of our offences to God and one another. "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end," [Hebrews 3:12-14].
Jesus on the night before he was to suffer took bread and wine and performed a ceremony which today we call "Communion." He said of the bread, "Take, eat, this is My body," and of the blood, He said, "Drink ye all of it, for this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for the remission of sins," [Matthew 26:26-28]. The motif of the blood sacrifice is found throughout God's word, from beginning to end. It's imagery that God Himself has chosen to convey the way of salvation through Jesus called the Christ. Jesus was saying that with His death He was bringing in the new covenant spoken by Jeremiah the prophet.
"Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant (or testimony) with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those day, says the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more," [Jeremiah 31:31-34].
The New Covenant or New Testament, or new agreement or new promise was made through the blood of the Lamb, through Jesus own blood on the cross. His blood covers our sins and makes them white as snow, white as wool, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." [Isaiah 1:18].
Apostle Peter wrote, also, "Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these times for you," [1 Peter 1:18-20].
We cannot finish our study without first including the prophecy from Isaiah concerning the suffering Messiah found in Isaiah 52:13-15 & 53:1-12. "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth," [Isaiah 53:6-7].
The above prophecy was considered by the early rabbis before the time of Jesus' life to be referring to the suffering of the Messiah. Some of the early rabbis believed in two Messiahs. One, the victorious son of David, who would vanquish their enemies. Another, a son of Joseph, who would strangely be killed by his enemies. They didn't fully understand the suffering servant prophecy, but believed it was of the Messiah. After the time of Jesus, the unbelieving rabbis changed their interpretation of Isaiah 53 to represent the suffering of the nation of Israel and not that of the Messiah.
In front of Pilate, we see part of Isaiah's prophecy being fulfilled. "Then said Pilate unto Him, Do you not hear how many things they witness against you? And (Jesus) he answered him never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly," [Matthew 27:13-14]. Apostle John adds some detail, "And (Pilate) went again into the judgment hall, and said unto Jesus, Whence are you? But Jesus gave him no answer. Then said Pilate unto Him, You don't speak to me? Don't you know that I have power to crucify you, and have power to release you?" [John 19:9-10]. Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against me, except it were given you from above: therefore, he that delivered me unto you has the greater sin," [John 19:11].
Jesus was like a lamb before the slaughter, Jesus went peacefully to his death with no resistance. Jesus was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my (God's) people was he stricken. Because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him (Jesus, the sacrificial lamb); He (God the Father) has put him to grief: when You shall make his soul an offering for sin. He (God the Father) shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied; for he (Jesus) shall bear their (our) iniquities. [parts of Isaiah 53: 5,8,9,10,11] Surely Jesus is the fulfilment of the Isaiah prophecy.
Have you accepted Jesus into your life, the sacrificial lamb slain from the foundation of the world?[Revelation 13:8] "So Christ was offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear a second time without sin unto salvation," [Hebrews 9:28]. Jesus promises to cleanse us of our sins and purge our consciences from dead works to serve the living God. "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" [Hebrews 9:14] The sacrificial system is God's imagery. I don't think we need to be ashamed of it, or water it down. God knows what He's doing. Believe on the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and you shall be saved.
Originally published October 22, 2013. Edited and abridged May 8th, 2026.
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