Boring old testament. I can't read all that stuff. It makes no sense to me. All that killing of animals. What a waste. How barbaric. One minute these ancient Hebrews are killing a bull, next time a ram, then a goat, a lamb, and not just one, but two a day, or several all at once, and during national festivals, hundreds more. They're killing over a thousand animals a year. What is that all about?
The sacrificial system, in other words, was an extremely bloody and costly affair. Indeed it was a 'yoke' Israel found difficult to bear. "Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?" Acts 15:10
What is all of that bloody killing about anyway?
The Cost.
The sacrificial system given by God to the Hebrews was an Object Lesson, which no other educational process could hope to match. The lessons God wanted to teach His people, and the angel host which looked on in stunned amazement, were as follows:
That the result of disobedience (sin) is death: the death of each animal being a dramatic reminder of that fact.
That the process of purging sin is a costly and bloody affair.
That access to Yahweh's presence without first being purged from sin is totally impossible: for only the purified believer could stand before a righteous God! All others must keep at a distance or risk being consumed by His holiness and glory.
That God Himself would - at the appointed time - PAY the enormous price of salvation by shedding His own life blood in the person of His only begotten Son.
And that a repentant sinner would be forgiven his sin, if he had faith in the Most High and presented the prescribed offering.
These lessons were all dramatically portrayed each time an innocent animal's blood was spilled and a worshiper entered the presence of the Almighty. In other words, each sacrifice was a dramatic object lesson which pointed to the price God Himself would pay to make salvation possible. And what was the price that the Almighty Himself had planned to pay to secure man's salvation?
It was the life-blood of His only begotten Son.
So yes, Pastor Buck was correct in saying "the heart of the Bible, the heart of ALL HISTORY, (is) the sacrifice of Jesus."
Yes, every animal sacrifice that was made at God's command was in fact a dramatic pointer to Christ's death on Calvary! Indeed the whole sacrificial system was a symbolic drama unfolding the Almighty's provision for man's forgiveness, cleansing and eternal salvation from sin and death. How true was Abraham's description of God's provision and personal involvement in sacrifice when he answered Isaac's question about the sacrificial lamb:
And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. Gen. 22:7,8
And God did provide the Lamb - His only begotten Son. Indeed He provided a grown RAM which portrays His own (still hidden) involvement in the Plan of Salvation.
That experience was also a spiritual object lesson designed to teach Abraham and the watching heavenly host that God Himself would one day pay the ultimate sacrifice to secure man's salvation.
The word salvation encompasses the following:
Redemption: A word which means to buy back one's own possessions, which have either been lost, stolen or mortgaged.
Purification: A process of cleansing which converts a filthy person to an acceptable state of purity.
Sanctification: The process of setting apart a soul for sacred use.
Atonement: To set at-one those who previously had been at variance
Glory: The granting of honor and power in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Eternal Life: To grant immortality to the ransomed soul.
Nevertheless the sacrificial system, costly, dramatic and explicit as it was, could never accomplish the Almighty's real objectives, which were:
1) salvation of mankind
2) the eradication of evil from the universe (which we see being played out in the Book of Revelation, last book of the Bible).
At best that sacrificial animal system was a spiritual object lesson to teach certain facts about salvation. Beyond that illustrative function it had little value. Why? Because the blood of bulls and goats is totally incapable of saving mankind from degeneration, disease and death. Salvation from these things calls for a far better solution. And so it was, to save the universe from sin and its result - death, the Almighty decided to pay the price Himself: to sacrifice His Son Yeshua (Jesus). This name means Savior from sin.
Yes, the Cost was far more than we ever could have paid - IMPOSSIBLE for us. It was God Who paid the extreme price. We truly are forever in His debt.
So, again, Why did He send angels to a humble pastor in Boise, Idaho? To get our attention, since so many have ignored the recorded truth found in the Bible, that so many are afraid, or unwilling to read.
Pastor Buck: “He is not giving us a new Word. He is taking his Word, the Bible, and turning a light on inside of it, making it alive!"
Why? God is not willing that any should perish ... He wishes for all to be born-again (spirits come to life again, and be reconciled to the Father). But that obviously has not happened for the majority; people have failed to discern ... If we really did see ALL that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit has done for us, we'd all be face down in the dirt crying out in repentance, and crying in joy, of His unfathomable love for us.
Remember the Father, who ran to embrace his once lost (prodigal) son? Did not Jesus say He came to reveal the Father to us? If we have seen Him (Jesus) we were seeing the Father.
This is the same Father who had a Plan. As impossible as it may be for us to understand, it was a Plan formed before the foundation of the world, outlined in the Law given to Israel, a grand object lesson that they failed to follow fully. But the Better Solution did not fail. He is the Center of ALL History. The Savior of the World, Jesus.
"The Spirit told me to give the message that your sin has already been judged; the separating barriers between God and man are down; you are free, liberated by his power; and you can be restored to a place of total innocence, to man's original position of closeness and fellowship with God. The importance of this message is seen by the reminders of the sacrifice in every message that has been brought by the angel." Pastor Roland Buck, taken from Ch. 7, www.AngelsOnAssignment.org