11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. Hebrews 9.11-15
So, what does this say about Israel’s present condition? About Israel after Jesus has come and says,
38 See! Your house is left to you desolate; Matthew 23:38
The temple was first spiritually then physically desolate and the Jewish people were scattered throughout the nations. Jerusalem was trodden down of the Gentiles, dispersion to the nations in bondage to Gentile kings. There’s now no king of the line of David and, in fact, no king of the line of David can come because the genealogical records have been destroyed and lost, and there’s no one who can prove that they are of the line of David.
9 “But now entreat God’s favor,
That He may be gracious to us.
While this is being done by your hands,
Will He accept you favorably?”
Says the Lord of hosts.
10 “Who is there even among you who would shut the doors,
So that you would not kindle fire on My altar in vain?
I have no pleasure in you,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“Nor will I accept an offering from your hands.
11 For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down,
My name shall be great among the Gentiles;
In every place incense shall be offered to My name,
And a pure offering;
For My name shall be great among the nations,”
Says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 1:9-11
There’s no tribe of Judah nor separate Davidic family. So, Israel is without king or prince in the dispersion. And today, even as Israel is back in the land, they don’t have a king. They have a prime minister and a president but they don’t really qualify as the Melech מלך or even the Sar שַׂר. According to scriptures, they’re not permanent.
But there’s a time coming according to scripture when the King will come, when the Kingdom will be restored to Israel.
Jesus spoke about that in Acts chapter 1, He would restore the Kingdom to Israel and He would come as the King of kings and the King of Israel.
So, He is the One who has the right to be the King. Therefore, the answer to the being without a King, unless you have Jesus, is: you don’t have the King, but if you have Jesus, you do have the rightful King.
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:4-8
Okay, let’s move on to the next little parallel with there being without sacrifice or without image two words in Hebrew Zebach זֶבַח is ‘sacrifice’. It’s the legitimate sacrifice which is ordained by God. You have examples of the legitimate sacrifice in the Hebrew scriptures. You have the Passover Lamb who is sacrificed to remember the Night of the Passover in Exodus 12.
Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. 8 Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. 10 You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. 11 And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. Exodus 12:1-11
You have the sacrificial offerings in Leviticus 1 9
Now the Lord called to Moses, and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of the livestock—of the herd and of the flock.
3 ‘If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord. 4 Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. 5 He shall kill the bull before the Lord; and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 6 And he shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into its pieces. 7 The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar, and lay the wood in order on the fire. 8 Then the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar; 9 but he shall wash its entrails and its legs with water. And the priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. Leviticus 1:1-9
And, above all, you have the Yom Kippur sacrifice, the Day of Atonement sacrifice in Leviticus 16 which is used to cover the sins of Israel.
3 “Thus Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with the blood of a young bull as a sin offering, and of a ram as a burnt offering. 4 He shall put the holy linen tunic and the linen trousers on his body; he shall be girded with a linen sash, and with the linen turban he shall be attired. These are holy garments. Therefore he shall wash his body in water, and put them on. 5 And he shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats as a sin offering, and one ram as a burnt offering.
6 “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house. 7 He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 8 Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. 9 And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. 10 But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.
11 “And Aaron shall bring the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bull as the sin offering which is for himself. 12 Then he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil. 13 And he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the Testimony, lest he die. 14 He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side; and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.
15 “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. 16 So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. 17 There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel. 18 And he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord, and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. 19 Then he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, cleanse it, and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.
20 “And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. 21 Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. 22 The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.
23 “Then Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of meeting, shall take off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the Holy Place, and shall leave them there. 24 And he shall wash his body with water in a holy place, put on his garments, come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, and make atonement for himself and for the people. 25 The fat of the sin offering he shall burn on the altar. 26 And he who released the goat as the scapegoat shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. 27 The bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy Place, shall be carried outside the camp. And they shall burn in the fire their skins, their flesh, and their offal. 28 Then he who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp. Leviticus 16:3-28
In Leviticus 16 they’re told to take two goats: one for the Lord to be killed as an atoning sacrifice in the Holy of Holies, inside the Temple, and a second goat to be sent into the wilderness bearing away the sins of the people.
All these sacrifices involve the shedding of blood,
11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’ Leviticus 17:11
That is the death of the animal the innocent for the guilty and it becomes a type of Jesus’ death for us for our sins.
Now, all of these sacrifices are absent in modern Judaism, they don’t happen anymore. You don’t have a Passover Lamb sacrificed at Passover time. you just have the shank bone of the Lamb which is put on the Seder dish. But it’s a reminder that there once was a sacrifice which no longer is today.
You don’t offer any sacrifices on the Day of Atonement. If you go to the synagogue on the Day of Atonement, they will recite the verses from the Torah which speak about the sacrifice, but they won’t actually make the sacrifice because it can only be done in the place where the Temple once stood and, of course, Jesus is the final sacrifice. He is the One who makes it possible for us to come to God through faith in Him.
Now when you look in the Torah, you find that the shedding of blood is required by God. We read in Exodus chapter 24 that it says,
6 And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient.” 8 And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.” Exodus 24:6-8
So, as Moses read the books of the Covenant to the people, he made the blood sacrifice and he sprinkled the blood upon the people and said: ‘This is the blood of the Covenant’. Do you see how every Covenant in the Old Testament is sealed with blood?
Hebrews tells us that,
22 And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. Hebrews 9:22
So blood has to be shed in order to enter into the Covenant sacrifice to atone for sins. Does that mean that God is bloodthirsty? No. The shedding of blood is essential because God is Holy and we’re not. There has to be something which covers the gap between our unholiness and His Holiness, and what He requires is the death of One who is innocent to cover the sin of those who are guilty.
So, the animal is innocent, it dies, sheds its blood in order that the guilty may be forgiven. That’s the whole point of the Yom Kippur sacrifice. The priest confesses the sins of the people over the head of the goat and sacrifices it as an atonement, an atoning sacrifice for the sin of the people. The goat has to die, the shedding of blood means death.
Do you see how that relates to Jesus? Jesus had to die he had to literally die and shed his blood in order to redeem us. And when we look at the New Testament, we see the verse which we’ve already read today concerning the New Covenant in Matthew 26:
26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” 27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Matthew 26:26-28
The sacrifice of blood is for the remission of sins. It’s made through the blood of Jesus.
In the Book of Hebrews, we are told a bit more about this. Hebrews chapter 9
11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. Hebrews 9:11-15
Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant by means of death, by means of shedding His blood for the redemption of transgressions, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Colossians 1 says,
13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14
You only have forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus. That’s why you had to die to your old self and you have to repent and believe that Christ died for your sins.
Now, the problem for Judaism is it is, today, without that sacrifice. When the Temple was destroyed, this did create a problem for Judaism. They no longer had a place to offer the sacrifices, particularly the Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement sacrifice. And the story is told that a man called Rabban Yohanan Ben Zakkai and Rabbi Joshua were walking by the ruins of the Temple and Rabbi Joshua said, “Woe to us that the place where the atonement for the sins of Israel was made has been destroyed.“
Okay so he recognized there the problem: the Temple’s been destroyed. We can’t make atonement for our sins anymore. Rabban Yohanan Ben Zakkai replied, “Do not be grieved my son. So you not know that we have a means of making atonement that is as good as this? What is it? Acts of loving-kindness. As it said, ‘For I desire חֶסֶד ḥesed loving-kindness and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.‘” (Hosea 6:6) Aviot d’Rabbi Natan 4:2
Can you see what’s happened there? They’ve changed the rules. If you like no longer do the shedding of blood, we can now achieve salvation, redemption, atonement through acts of kindness, through good deeds.
And, after the destruction of the Temple, this man Rabban Yohanan Ben Zakkai established an academy at a place called Yavne יַבְנֶה where he set up to preserve Judaism without sacrifices, without priesthood, and without a Temple. And he said, in effect, the good deeds have replaced the sacrifices of the Torah as the means of gaining atonement for sin.
It’s interesting that Jewish critics of Christianity say that Paul changed the Torah, that he changed the rules so that we have a different method now. But if you look at this, the rabbis have changed the Torah as well and they made a big change which actually leaves out the need for the blood of atonement, leaves out the need for Jesus, and, in effect, they’ve set up a new religion.
I found a Jewish commentator who even says this. I found this on the internet. Rabban Yanan Ben Rabaran says, ‘Judaism did not disappear with the destruction of the temple what it did was transform itself from a religion centred around the temple priesthood and sacrifice it became a religion centred around Torah study prayer atonement in the synagogue and deeds of kindness.’
From a historical point of view, it is accurate to say that the biblical and rabbinic Judaism are two different, though of course related, religions. It was Rabbi Yohanan Ben Zakkai more than anyone else who made this possible. See that this quote says that they’re two different religions. Is that interesting? Related but different.
We could say it’s the same with Christianity, it is related but different from Judaism. And which one is the truth today?
Orthodox Jews zealously keep the aspects of the Torah which are possible to keep such as Kosher food, the Sabbath observance ritual, Purity festivals and Holy days, but it doesn’t ask the question about why God has permitted for nearly 2,000 years to pass since the keeping of so many aspects of the Torah, particularly the sacrificial system, have been impossible to keep.
There is no atoning sacrifice, no, just trust in prayer and fasting, in repentance to cover sins. As Hosea says,
4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days. Hosea 3:4-5
They are now without sacrifice, they’re also without the image, the Matzevah [maṣṣēbâ] מַצֵּבָה, the pillar or the monument which is used as the standing image devoted to idolatrous use although, by and large, since the Babylonian captivity and in the diaspora today, Israel has kept away from idolatrous worship.
