“And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22).
In reading through the Biblical account of Old Testament Israel, it’s easy to underestimate the enormous number of animals that were sacrificed over the course of that nation’s history. To cite one example, 2 Chronicles 7:5 tells us that Israel’s King Solomon once offered a sacrifice of 22,000 bulls and 120,000 sheep on one ceremonial occasion.
To put this in perspective, imagine what it would be like to attend a ceremony where 142,000 animals were put to death. Consider the overwhelming amount of blood those deaths would generate. Then imagine the incalculable number of sacrificial animal deaths that occurred over the many centuries of Israel’s Old Testament existence.
These difficult realities serve to remind us that the Old Covenant sacrificial system produced an enormous amount of death. For this reason, some may have difficulty understanding how the Author of life could establish a system of reconciliation that was predicated on such widespread slaughter.
We can address that concern when we remember that sin carries a a heavy price. While the Biblical definition of sin encompasses all the inappropriate behaviors we generally associate with that word, it primarily means “to miss the mark.” In other words, sin involves a failure to live up to the perfect standard that God established when He created the first human beings.
We should also remember that the first appearance of “death” in the Scriptures took the form of an advance warning from the Creator to the very first human person…
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die'” (Genesis 2:16-17).
Unfortunately, the people who received that warning chose to disregard it, and death came about as a result. Every human being has since followed in the footsteps of that first human couple. The important thing to remember is that God’s warning is just as valid today as it was then. That resulting death penalty will claim the lives of the disobedient or it will claim the life of an innocent substitute.
The astonishing magnitude of animal sacrifices offered under the Old Covenant provide a stark contrast that illustrates the sole sufficiency of Jesus’ atoning death. Remember that Hebrews 9:22 tells us, “…without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (NIV). There is no perfect forgiveness without a perfect sacrifice- and Jesus is that sacrifice.