Unblemished

The Exodus from Egypt ids the very first time that God told the Hebrew people that the sacrifices ff Lambs or goats on the night of the Passover must be unblemished animals. Afterward this the requirement became standard for all sacrifices made to God.

Before the Exodus, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all made sacrifices with no mention from God of blemishes, but on the day of Passover God told Moses,”The animals you choose must be year-old males without blemish, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.” (Exodus 12:5) “Without blemish” is a criteria simply inserted between the age and the type of the animals. To be used. Why did God insert this, and in subsequent generations insist upon it?

“I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills. . . If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?” (Psalm 50:9&13) At the same time that these words are true, God required unblemished animals to be used in sacrifice to Him.

The answer must lie in the very purpose of the sacrifice. Clearly God does not feel a need for our sacrifices, yet He requires them. The requirement of an unblemished sacrifice has nothing to do with God’s “needs”, but with ours. In His infinite wisdom God knew and knows that the gulf between us is wider than we can bridge, and that He alone can supply that bridge. In requiring unblemished sacrifices, God extends a means by which very blemished human beings can approach and even please a perfect God. He extends a way of accepting a relationship with Him.

Centuries after that first Passover, God’s people had fallen away, and He spoke to them about their sacrifices: “When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you?” (Malachi 1:8).

At the same time that God gave the Hebrew people a lifeline to Himself in their unblemished sacrifices, He gave them (and us) a foreshadow of the sacrifice that He Himself would supply for us to arrive at real reunion with Him, the unblemished lamb of Christ. Even before the first Passover God was drawing His people closer to Himself. The last time Jesus was celebrating that Passover with his disciples, He said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:20) God had always known that our need for Him is greater than any “need” He may have for us, and yet He has made provision for us through His own unblemished sacrifice.

Love in Him,

Prue