ANIMAL SACRIFICES WILL NOT BE PART OF THE MESSIANIC KINGDOM

 

 MY RESPONSE TO A JEWISH APOLOGIST WHO CLAIMED THAT THERE WILL BE AN ETERNAL RETURN TO ANIMAL SACRIFICES:

You claim that the sacrificial system will be restored in the heavenly kingdom. However, in Scriptures you offered as proof, there is no mention of animal sacrifice:

 

·       Isaiah 56:7: these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

 

Instead, Isaiah claims that there will be no animal sacrifices in the end:

 

·       Isaiah 65:25, 66:3: “The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the LORD…He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig’s blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations.

 

The Hebrew Scriptures (HS) have many verses that in the future there will be no more killing (animal sacrifices):

 

·       Isaiah 11:6–9: The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain…

 

God never even was satisfied with them:

 

·       Isaiah 1:11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.”

 

God only commanded them to prepare Israel for the ultimate sacrifice of the Messiah:

 

·       Isaiah 53:5–10: But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth…Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

 

Jesus was the sacrifice that ended all the animal sacrifices:

 

·       Hebrews 10:5-10: Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’” [Psalm 40; LXX] When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first [covenant] in order to establish the second.

 

Since the final payment for our sins has already been paid, the primary sacrifices in the eternal Messianic Kingdom will be the fruit of our lips:

 

·       Hosea 14:1-2 (KJV) O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: Say unto him, “Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: So will we render the calves of our lips.”

 

The offering would no longer be calves but our confessions. You also offered this verse as evidence that animal sacrifice will be part of the eternal kingdom:

 

·       And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the Lord of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day. (Zechariah 14:21, ESV)

 

However, “meat” is not found in the Hebrew. Instead:

 

·       “Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.” (Zechariah 14:21, NKJV)

 

Jesus not only fulfilled Temple sacrifices, He also fulfilled the Temple, which had just been a copy of its heavenly reality:

 

·        “I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary [“mikdash”] in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place [“mishkan”] shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary [“mikdash”] is in their midst forevermore.” (Ezekiel 37:26-28)

 

This suggests that the Temple was a shadow of a deeper reality, which God wanted to convey symbolically. The NT claims that God Himself would be our sanctuary (Temple). This is also true of the OT revelation:

 

·       “Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary [“mikdash”] to them for a while in the countries where they have gone.’” (Ezekiel 11:16; Isaiah 8:13:14)

 

God, the Second Person of the Trinity, is the ultimate incarnation of the Temple.

 

You also referenced the Temple described in Ezekiel 40-48 as evidence that the Messianic Kingdom would include animal sacrifices. According to the NT revelation, this temple symbolizes the presence of God Himself. However, these nine chapters contain so many details that some argue that this temple must be an actual temple and not merely a symbolic non-physical one. However, even the rabbis were perplexed by Ezekiel’s lengthy description:

 

·       The difficulty of interpreting Ezekiel’s temple vision isn’t limited to only Christian scholars. It has also been a problem with Jewish ones as well. Michael Brown notes that Talmudic rabbis believed the images of the visions were difficult enough that the prophet Elijah would have to come and explain them.

 

Since the description of Ezekiel’s temple does not coincide with that of the Mosaic Temple, it has led many commentators to believe that Ezekiel’s temple must be a spiritual one:

 

·       Dr. Michael Brown argues for the spiritual view based upon a handful of reasons including the fact Ezekiel’s temple contradicts a lot of the descriptions in the Torah (Exodus/Leviticus/Numbers particularly) and the text suggests the prophecy will be fulfilled in Ezekiel’s lifetime (Ezekiel 40:4, 43:10,11), but wasn’t. https://hipandthigh.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/interpreting-ezekiels-temple-vision/

 

Besides, many of the features of the temple are supernatural. Water is flowing from the temple, and its volume increases as it flows. It nourishes trees that bear fruit every month:

 

·       And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.” (Ezekiel 47:12)

 

There are numerous reasons to believe that the temple is not a physical temple but a “temple” whose features convey theological truths. God instructed Ezekiel to describe the temple to the Israelites so that they would be ashamed. How could a mere architectural plan bring shame unless this plan conveyed theological truths and revealed the sinful intentions of the heart:

 

·       “As for you, son of man, describe to the house of Israel the temple, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and they shall measure the plan. And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple, its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, that is, its whole design; and make known to them as well all its statutes and its whole design and all its laws, and write it down in their sight, so that they may observe all its laws and all its statutes and carry them out. This is the law of the temple: the whole territory on the top of the mountain all around shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple. (Ezekiel 43:10-12)

 

This temple plan conveyed spiritual truths. The whole territory would now be holy, not just the holy place itself. God’s presence would sanctify the surroundings.

 

Consequently, we find no reference to this temple among any of the writings of Hagai, Zechariah, Malachi, Ezra, or Nehemiah, written after Ezekiel and the return of the Jews to Israel from their Babylonian captivity. Nor did the new Jerusalem Temple follow in any way Ezekiel’s vision. If these writings didn’t understand Ezekiel as literal, nor should we!

 

Consequently, there Ezekiel’s vision provides no indication that the coming Messianic Kingdom would include animal sacrifices.