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Study 8: The Background of Sacrifice
In the last lesson we saw how Allah worked in the life of
(pbuh). We saw Allah's promise to and how that
promise was to be fulfilled by one of the descendants of ,
's son by his wife Sarah. In this present lesson we shall
continue our study of and see how Allah worked in another
area of his life. We shall examine the practice of the annual
Sacrifice or Qurban (sometimes rendered Kurban, Korban,
or Korbani) and how it was initiated through Allah's command
to . We shall also see how fits into Allah's promise
to .
was begun at the time of Prophet
According to the and the , the practice of began with . Allah commanded to take his son and
sacrifice him before Allah. began to carry out Allah's
command. We find in the that even believed Allah
was able to raise his son from the dead and give him back alive
(Hebrews 11:17-19). Just as he was about to sacrifice his son
however, Allah told to stop and gave him a ram to sacrifice
in place of his son. Allah saw was obedient. Allah was
not primarily interested in sacrifice but in faith and obedience.
Rather than accepting 's sacrifice Allah provided his
own sacrifice. With , then, the practice of was
begun.
Detailed rules for were given to Prophet
The practice of was given more definite form and came
into wide practice through the rules Allah gave to (pbuh).
Allah had from the very beginning commanded that disobedience
or sin result in death. Yet, we have seen that Allah loves his
creation and desires that none of them should be destroyed. As
a result of his love we saw how at different times and for different
people Allah made special grace arrangements. Through those arrangements
and by faith in Allah and his promise people were saved from
the just punishment their sins deserved. Such arrangements, however,
were only temporary. We find in a more universal arrangement
for obtaining forgiveness from sin. It was available to all men.
We saw a similar thing in the last lesson, how Allah made a universal
promise to . Thus, we find two possibilities through which
all men have the possibility of obtaining Allah's grace. First
was the promise to and second was . We shall see,
in fact, that these two things, according to Allah's perfect
plan, worked together so that men might receive grace. For the
present, however, let us examine more closely.
Through man saw how terrible his sin was, and the ugly
results it brought. He saw that the result of sin was death and
that as the says,
...man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment...
(Hebrews 9:27)
Allah commanded that when any person sinned they were to give
. Instead of the sinner himself dying, his innocent sacrifice
would be killed, it's blood spilled out on the altar and the
animal's death accepted by Allah as payment for the sin. The
regulations for such were as follows.
1. To recognize and admit one's sin and the need to obtain
Allah's forgiveness.
2. To find an animal perfect and without blemish for sacrifice.
3. To believe Allah that through this arrangement sin would be
forgiven.
4. To offer the sacrifice at the temple or Allah's "holy
house" and sprinkle the blood on the altar.
The priests at the Temple were given responsibility for testing
of the animals to make sure there were perfect. After offering
the the meat was burned, except for small portion given
to the priest. Through this procedure it was believed that a
person's sins were forgiven.
In the there are two main types of recorded
Allah commanded to institute two types of . The
first was given at the birth of a child. On the 40th day for
boy or the 80th day for the girl the family was to offer a lamb
and a turtledove for sin. After that initial , whenever
a person broke one of the laws given by he was obligated
to present a or endure the consequences of the sin himself.
As Allah accepted a substitute for 's son, so also in
's time he allowed men to substitute in animal in place of
their own death. In fact, we see a similar thing way back during
the time of Adam and when Allah sacrificed an innocent animal
to save man from the results of his own sin. Allah used the skin
of the animal to clothe Adam and in order to cover their
shame. As the says about ,
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed
with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
(Hebrews 9:22)
In the animal's throat is cut and the blood spilled
out and sprinkled on the altar. For the one who admitted his
sin and repented, Allah accepted the life of that innocent animal
instead of the sinner's own life.
The commanded by was not complete
What is the significance of all this? We must note primarily
two things. First, as given to was not meant to be
perfect and complete, but rather was a symbol of a perfect
arrangement to come. The of was never complete for
several reasons. For the majority of people who were poor, giving
was very difficult or impossible. They simply could not
afford the animal to be sacrificed. On the other hand, those
who were rich and could afford the were often prevented
from buying an animal because their income was not halal. This
arrangement of was never complete or finished. After giving
a the worshipper was always faced with the fact that he
would again sin thereby always necessitating a future .
There would be an unending cycle of sin and sacrifice as long
as the person lived. Finally, many people who lived far away
from the temple found it impossible to go and offer sacrifice
according to the law. Thus, the of was not the final
answer for man's sin.
The commanded by had an important purpose
Yet, the incompleteness of 's was not as bad as
might at first seem. The real purpose of 's was to
show people that sin result sin death and that a righteous Allah
must demand the penalty of sin. It also shows that Allah the
merciful and loving allows a substitution for the payment of
the penalty. Also, the of ' served as a sign or symbol
to point people to a perfect final . A Allah himself
would provide. The of was insufficient to free its
followers of their sins but it served to point them to a future
that Allah, through the prophets, was predicting would
come.
Allah's promise of grace to was closely related
to Allah's command to give
We find here that the concepts of and Allah's grace
to unite. Allah promised that through one of the descendants
of and all of mankind would be blessed. This was
to be Allah's final grace arrangement available to all of mankind.
He also promised that Allah, the almighty merciful Allah, would
himself provide a final perfect . As he provided an animal
for to offer instead of his son so he would provide a
sacrifice for all mankind so we, through Allah's grace, would
not have to suffer the consequences of our sin. As we examine
Allah's word we find that these two great promises are in actuality
not two but one and the same. Allah's grace was to be available
to all men through one of the descendants of and
and also through Allah's perfect he would provide. These
two, according to the perfect plan all of Allah, are actually
one and the same. It was that very descendant of and
who was to be the perfect . We find the "who"
was specified when Allah promised that through a descendant
of all men would be blessed. We see a the "how"
of the same promise given when Allah commanded to offer
his son as the sacrifice and then provided a sacrifice himself.
Allah specified to the "who" and the "how"
of his plan to provide grace for all mankind. Let us look now
that what Scripture has to say about this final perfect
that Allah was to provide.
Allah's final was to be perfect
We find that the predictions of this final perfect
of Allah is one of the major themes of the , and
other scriptures. We have seen how the animals used in
were to be perfect. In the same way, the perfect Allah
was to send also had to be perfect and without sin. In the book
of the prophet it is written,
He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich
in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit
in his mouth. Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause
him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will
of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of
his soul, he will see the light [of life] and be satisfied; by
his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he
will bear their iniquities. ( 53:9-11)
All men, being sinners, are responsible for their own sin
and hence cannot bear the punishment for anyone else's sins.
Allah's perfect , however, being without sin, was able
to take on himself the penalty of others sins. It is written,
Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by Allah, smitten by him, and
afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was
crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace
was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep,
have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the
LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. ( 53:4-6)
The birth of Allah's final was to fulfill prophecy
Besides being without sin, it was also revealed through the
prophets where the birthplace of Allah's was to be,
"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among
the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will
be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient
times." (Micah 5:2)
Thus, the one who was to be Allah's perfect was to
be born in the little town of Bethlehem.
We have seen that, as the one who was to fulfill the promise
given to , the coming was to be from the family
of through . In later prophecies this was even more
closely specified. According to the ,
Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness-- and I will not
lie to -- that his line will continue forever and his throne
endure before me like the sun; it will be established forever
like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky." (
89:35-37)
We see that the of Allah who was to make Allah's grace
available to all men was to be from the line of .
The prophet also prophesied concerning the one to come
that he was to be born of a virgin,
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin
will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call
him Immanuel. ( 7:14)
He was to be born without human father through the power of
Allah. This was necessary to allow him to be sinless. As descendants
of Adam all other men are sinners inheriting their sinful nature
from Adam. As the says,
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man,
and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men,
because all sinned-- (Romans 5:12)
As sons of Adam we have already seen how we're all infected
by the same disease --sin. Only the one who was to be Allah's
would be without that disease, because only he would be
born without human father.
The life and works of Allah's final was to fulfill
prophecy
We looked at prophecies concerning the birth of Allah's final
. Let us look briefly at one dealing with his life. In
the book of the prophet it is recorded of him,
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD
has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent
me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the
captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim
the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our
God, to comfort all who mourn, ( 61:1-2)
The coming promised would do many signs and wonders
during his life. He would heal, work miracles, and help the poor
and oppressed. These miraculous signs would be one more way by
which people would know he was Allah's promised one.
The above are but a few of the made prophecies concerning
Allah's coming . We shall examine more these later. At
the present that us merely note in closing that this final ,
his coming into the world, his life and death for the sins of
others, was all according to the perfect plan and will of Allah.
It is written,
Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will
see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD
will prosper in his hand. ( 53:10)
It was Allah's perfect plan that through this sinful
men might be saved and the promise given to might be
fulfilled. We shall be looking in the next lesson at how and
by whom all these prophecies were fulfilled.
QUESTIONS:
1. Who offered up the first ?
A.
B.
C.
2. Which of the following was true,
A. Allah accepted 's sacrifice
B. Allah provided a substitute for
's sacrifice.
3. Give three of the four conditions for as given to
.
A.
B.
C.
4. According to the Law of how often was a person obliged
to give ?
A.
Once in his lifetime
B. Once the first day of each year
C. After each sin.
5. Name two reasons which could hinder someone from being
able to follow 's laws for :
A.
B.
6. According to the (Hebrews 9:22), what is necessary
for the forgiveness of sins?
7. Allah's prophesied final perfect was to be,
A.
Sinful like all other men
B. Sinless
C. Sinful but repentant
8. Where was Allah's prophesied final perfect to be
born?
9. What was to be unusual about the final 's mother?
10. Describe the relationship between the promise given to
and the command of given to .
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