We are in Exodus chapter five with our word for today. זָבַח slaughter, sacrifice, slaughter for sacrifice, victims. It is used 133 times in the Old Testament. We find that our word is used not just to offer sacrifice to the true God but to any so called god. Judges 16:23 Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great לִזְבֹּ֧חַ sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.” The Bible doesn’t exactly say why God set up the sacrificial system but my guess is because people were already feeling guilty about their sin and wanted to try and make up for it. So God meets people where they are and starts where they are currently in their understanding of their guilty conscience. He then moves them to a better more accurate understanding of what he would do through Jesus death on the cross for sin in the future. In our chapter today our word is used not for the first time but in the first setting up of an ongoing system of sacrifice as part of worship to the true God. Let’s look in our chapter today. Exodus 5:3, 8, 17 Please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness that we may וְנִזְבְּחָה֙ sacrifice to the Lord our God… But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer נִזְבְּחָ֥ה sacrifice to our God.’… But he said, “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and נִזְבְּחָ֥ה sacrifice to the Lord.’ Pharaoh views this request as a waste of the people and his time. And he makes a good point as to why he thinks so in verse two. Exodus 5:2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” People who do not know the true God think our relationship with God is a waste of our time and theirs. They see it as a joke to be mocked. This is what Pharaoh is doing. He is mocking the request and accusing the people of being idle not wanting to work. We will look at the word for idle in a few days. Something interesting is brought up when Pharaoh is trying to negotiate with God’s will by not letting them go three days in the wilderness but instead just offer the sacrifices there in Egypt. We see that there was something about how the slaughter of animals for the sacrifice that would be offensive to the Egyptians. Exodus 8:26 But Moses said, “That would not be right. The נִזְבַּ֖ח sacrifices we offer the Lord our God would be detestable to the Egyptians. And if we offer נִזְבַּ֞ח sacrifices that are detestable in their eyes, will they not stone us?
There is an element to slaughter for sacrifice that is offensive. The very idea that an animal’s life has to be taken for the sacrifice to be effective is a tragedy. My guess is that God is trying to get us to understand just how serious sin is. It is deathly serious. We either die for our own sins or someone or something else has to be put to death in our place. These sacrifices are by design to be offensive. They are to give us pause about our own sin and our need for God’s salvation. The sacrifices in the Old Testament did not take away sin but instead put them off until Jesus would come and once and for all pay the price for our sins. Hebrews 10:3-4, 10-12, 14 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins…we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all...For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. I’ll close with this encouragement of how we respond to Christ sacrifice for us. Hebrews 13:15-16 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
