MONEY DOES NOT REPLACE BLOOD SACRIFICES
Most Christians and all Jews have read enough of the Old Testament to know that blood sacrifices were important aspects of the law. In these modern days, however, when there is no temple and no cultural stomach for blood sacrifices, Old/First Covenant religionists satisfy themselves with financial sacrifices in lieu of blood sacrifices. Somehow they think that God also is satisfied with the substitution. God is not satisfied, however, because he never really wanted blood sacrifices in the first place.
Jews and Christians have both erred by adopting a literal interpretation of scripture that says that God meant what he said regarding blood sacrifices. A symbolic interpretation, on the other hand, says that God really wants spiritual sacrifices. Old/First Covenant religionists, therefore, would do well to understand what God means by “spiritual sacrifice.”
Blood sacrifices and agricultural offerings made some sense in ancient cultures. They do not make any sense in modern cultures. Religious institutions have worked around this problem by saying that money is the new blood and agricultural offering. Even if that were true, which it is not, money would not be an acceptable offering to God because he never wanted physical blood and agricultural offerings in the first place. He only used those concepts to symbolically represent what he did want.
Psalm 51:16-17 16 For thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased. 17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
COMMENTARY: When we read about Biblical sacrifices, we first think about animals slaughtered and burnt on an altar. And then, because we do not practice blood sacrifices in these modern times, we assume that money is the contemporary replacement for blood and flesh. Indeed, God did instruct Israel to perform such sacrifices, but they are only physical, natural representations of the kind of spiritual (not natural) sacrifice He wants from us (i.e. broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart).
Often in the religious community, the giving of money is referred to as a sacrifice. This usually happens in the context of exhortations by religious leaders when encouraging people to give money, whether as a so-called tithe for ongoing expenses or an offering for a special purpose. Such solicitations have all the appearance of being Biblical, but they are not. Indeed it is Biblical to give money to the poor, but such gifts should be done voluntarily, in response to a perceived need, not in response to a solicitation from a religious leader who uses fine sounding religious arguments and misapplied scripture to guilt people into giving. Furthermore, the religious leaders who request donations and offerings are usually not poor. In fact, many of them are very rich.
The problem here is this: man’s idea of sacrifice (i.e. a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart) is different from what God had in mind. For man, for example, sacrifice is with respect to something material — like money. For God, however, sacrifice involves something spiritual, not physical. It must be said, of course, that material sacrifices can have spiritual motives, but if those spiritual motives are missing, or are overridden by soulish motives, the sacrifice is not essentially spiritual. It is flesh.
AUTHORS’ NOTE: See Spirit, Soul and Body, and Flesh, Works and Deeds for a detailed discussion of these topics.
The best representation of what God has in mind for a spiritual sacrifice is found in the following verses:
Romans 11:32-36 For God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all. 33 O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever. Amen.
Romans 12:1-4 I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function,
Here we find that presentation of our whole, living body, unconformed to the ways of the world, is, in God’s eyes, the ideal act of spiritual worship. This ideal is represented in natural terms as whole, burnt offerings that are represented so many times in First Covenant scriptures.
A literal interpretation of this scripture suggests that we make our bodies living sacrifices in our minds by saying something like “I am yours Lord. Have your way with me. I am here to do your will. Etc. Etc.” That sounds spiritual enough, but it is not really what God has in mind.
What he wants people to do is sacrifice the fleshly works of their bodies that make up their religion. This includes all the things they do according to the rules and regulations of the religious organizations to which they belong. Examples include:
•Going to church/synagogue
•Paying tithes
•Singing
•Communion
•Baptism
•Circumcision
These and others religious rituals are all traditions established and enforced by men.
AUTHORS’ NOTE: See Traditions for a detailed discussion of the kinds of activities that would constitute an acceptable sacrifice.
And the spiritual equivalent of this ideal sacrifice is confirmed in Mark 12:28-34 where Jesus says that loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, along with loving your neighbor as yourself, is the greatest commandment.
It is important to notice that in the telling of this encounter between Jesus and the scribe in Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus also says that all the commandments are based on these two commandments. In other words, loving God and loving our neighbor are summaries of the Ten Commandments. Moreover, the Ten Commandments are summaries of the whole Law represented in the Pentateuch (i.e. the first five books of the Bible). In other words, Jesus confirms the value and significance of The Law.
The scribe to whom Jesus was talking acknowledged that he understood the spiritual significance of what Jesus meant when he said that this kind of love (i.e. heart, soul, mind, and strength, along with loving your neighbor as yourself) is greater than the love represented in all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices a person could make. This was a profound statement of enlightenment for a religious leader of those days because they were very religious about all the Temple rituals and related rules of man-made righteousness. To this Jesus replied that the scribe was not far from the Kingdom of God. Reading between the lines, we infer that Jesus meant that understanding the difference between natural burnt offerings and spiritual offerings was critical to entering the Kingdom of God. That is an important statement for anyone who would ever hope to enter that Kingdom.
SACRIFICES ELICITED BY OR SOLICITED BY THIRD PARTIES ARE NOT SPIRITUAL: In the economy of commercial religion, the giving of financial tithes, offerings and donations are often referred to as “spiritual sacrifices”. These so-called sacrifices are not truly spiritual. They are inspired by the flesh of the people who solicit them and they are fulfilled by the flesh of those who make them.
Spiritual leaders of churches and ministries request donations for one main reason: They want to ensure that their ministries survive. Typically, their livelihood and social standing depends on the income received in tithes and donations. With such self-interest in view, it is obvious that solicitations for money are birthed in concern, worry or fear that there will not be enough money to support the ministry if they do not keep making solicitations with some regularity. That is why we see the annual tithing messages in churches. That is why we see the “DONATE NOW” buttons in ministry websites. That is why you receive end-of year solicitation letters from ministries whose expenses exceed their budgets. They all need to keep priming the pump to keep the money coming in.
A truly spiritual sacrifice is inspired by the Spirit of God — not by the flesh of men and/or women who are concerned about the survival of their personal ministries. To be fair, we need to allow that God can, and does, work through human agents to accomplish his purposes here on earth. And we need to allow that God may, on occasion, work through human agents to stimulate the release of money for a special purpose.
It is not reasonable to expect, however, that God would need to keep reminding his people to give to the same ministry organizations year after year. God is not a nagging god. He gives a commandment and expects his people to obey. He is not a god who needs to keep encouraging and cajoling his people to act. His way dealing with disobedience is to impose a consequence — not to nag people into obedience.
Nowhere is this truth more applicable than in the issue of money. Consider Psalms 50:9-15:
9 I will accept no bull from your house, nor he-goat from your folds. 10 For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine. 12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world and all that is in it is mine. 13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High; 15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
If God is not willing to accept bulls or goats, why should we think he would be willing to accept money as a substitute for blood? What he wants is obedience, thanksgiving, faithfulness, and a readiness to turn to him when we are in trouble. He wants New Covenant disciples.
Sometimes, as in the case of tithes that are for ongoing expenses such as salaries, the leaders personally and directly gain from the practice. Other times they may not gain directly from such giving, but they at least enhance their standing as religious leaders within the religious community because they have advocated for giving to some kind of religious cause. In both examples the religious leaders benefit.
WHAT GOD REALLY WANTS: We err when we think that God first wanted blood sacrifices and then changed his mind to want us to make financial sacrifices. In Jeremiah 7:21-27 God goes so far as to say that he never commanded Israel regarding burnt offerings and sacrifices. He says, rather, that all he really wanted them to do was be obedient to his laws. This scripture poses some difficulty because a good portion of Leviticus is devoted to details about blood sacrifices and offerings. The problem, therefore, is to understand the symbolism of blood sacrifices and offerings, because if taken literally, Jeremiah 7:21-27 stands in clear contradiction to commandments in Leviticus.
What we need to know to make Jeremiah 7:21-27 understandable and not stumble over the contradictions is that God has always and only been interested in the kind of spiritual sacrifices referred to in Psalm 51:16-17 (i.e. a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart) and the obedience mentioned in Jeremiah 7:23. That’s it! No more, and no less.
Neither blood nor money was ever in God’s mind as the ideal sacrifice or offering. He gave us a picture of that ideal through the symbolism of blood sacrifices and offerings, but the Jews missed the symbolism and so have the Christians. And as a result, both Jews and Christians waste time and money trying to give to God something God never wanted. Accordingly, they have missed the basic requirements for a good life.
The take-away principle from these truths is that any religious activity that involves money is outside God’s will — unless the activity involves helping others in a way that does not benefit the giver.