Messianic Pictures in the Temple Sacrificial System
A third aspect of the hatat offering was that it rendered a person considered ceremonially unclean, clean. Any contamination acquired through contact with blood, death, or other manifestation of the kingdom of death outlined in God’s holy Torah, was rendered not merely inconsequential, but exactly the opposite: the unclean was transferred out of the kingdom of death into the kingdom of light and life
We find this observance in Luke 2:22 “When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed…” Joseph and Mary presented two pigeons, because they were poor, to the Temple priests in accordance with the Law of Moses. Did they do this because they had sinned? No. Childbirth is a perfectly natural occurrence and an event to be celebrated. However, anyone who has ever given birth knows, there is a lot of blood! Considering this hatat offering a sin offering exclusively is too narrow in scope, and a reflects the limitation of our English language. The hatat, as already discussed, rendered that which was ritually unclean—because of blood—clean. Mary had not sinned, but she had come into contact with a lot of blood.
“In God’s desire for His people to ‘draw near,’ He provided for all aspects of human imperfection—including those sins of which His people were ignorant of having perpetrated.”
1 John 1:9 reads, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” It would seem, through the Messiah, that were are made clean, even from the unrighteousness we don’t even know about. What an awesome God we serve!
The path of salvation made for the Gentiles is directly tied to the hatat work of Jesus. Following his vision of the unclean animals, Peter realizes that God’s desire is for the gospel to be given to the unclean—the Gentiles. “But a voice from heaven answered a second time, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.’”3 Peter later explains his vision, “And he said to them, ‘You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.’”4
“Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.”5 In this Scripture, the concrete was set. The legalistic theology of the influencing Judaizers6 would not, and could not be allowed to undo what Christ had done on the cross—transferring those who were unclean and in the kingdom of death, and making them “clean,” as citizens in a new kingdom. “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”7
Guilt Offerings
The guilt offering, or asham in the Hebrew, was God’s vehicle for handling those sins of which we knew we were guilty. We had purposely rebelled and acted contrary to God’s will. Guilt was on our heads, symbolically, blood on our hands. At some point, though, we realized our sin and the weight of its penalty and repented—turned the other way. Before Christ, however, the only way to demonstrate our repentance and have the sin(s) covered was through blood sacrifice, the asham offering.
The repentant brought his offering to the priests, pressed his hands on the animal’s head, symbolically transferring the blood of his hands—his sin—onto the innocent creature. For the sacrifice to be considered legitimate, the sinner had to identify with the atoning animal.
“As believers in Jesus, in the great work He has done on our behalf, for the promise of His return and our eternal place with Him, we too should be before God with continual thanksgiving, as Colossians 2: 6,7 says, ‘Therefore as you have received Jesus Christ the Lord, so walk … overflowing with thanksgiving.’”
The guilt offering sacrifice came with a price. Many of the “Don’ts” in the Torah carry a price. “If you do this, then you must offer a sacrifice and pay this penalty.” There was a monetary consideration that was connected with the asham.
Category: Biblical Studies, Pneuma Review, Spring 1999
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