God’s Sacrifice – Ki Tisa – Feb. 27

Why did God choose Passover as the appointed time for His Son to be sacrificed for the sins of the world instead of The Day of Atonement?

I’ve often considered this question and have struggled to find an answer. The Day of Atonement encompasses the yearly sacrifice that cleanses the nation of Israel from all of their sins year by year (Lev. 16:15-19). Doesn’t it make more sense for the final sacrifice to occur on this appointed time instead of Passover? Did God get the two appointed times mixed up?

I believe the answers to these questions are found in this week’s Torah Portion study. In this week’s selected Scriptures (Exodus 30:11 – Ex. 34:35) Moses finally descended from Mt. Sinai with the two tablets containing the Ten Commandments. It is on the basis of the Ten Commandments in connection to the Passover that God made a covenant with His people.

Watch a brief video overview of this week’s Torah Portion commentary!

The Significance of The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments were a very straightforward set of rules from the God of heaven and earth to the children of Israel, however, it seems like it was difficult to actually make them a reality in the Israelite camp. The LORD first gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai in Exodus 20, however, it took fifteen chapters of the Bible and at least eighty days before they actually received the two stone tablets that were originally inscribed by the finger of God (Ex. 31:18). The delay in receiving the inscribed version of the Ten Commandments seems to correlate with the struggle that the Israelites had in appropriating the commandments.

The Ten Commandments gave the Israelites a summary of the Law that was easy to understand by everyone, child and adult alike. They were simple, clear, and no one needed a lawyer to explain the commandments to them.

The Ten Commandments were first spoken by God to the people of Israel when Moses brought the people out to meet God after arriving in the wilderness of Sinai (Ex. 19-20). We also read that Moses wrote down all the words and ordinances of the LORD in the book of the covenant and made the covenant active through the blood of the sacrifices (Ex. 24:3-8). It was after this that Moses ascended Mt. Sinai and descended forty days later with the two tablets bearing the Ten Commandments in his hands, however, these two stone tablets were broken by Moses when he saw the carousing of the children of Israel (Ex. 32:19).

The Breaking of The Ten Commandments

The children of Israel had become impatient waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain and they asked Aaron to make them a “god” who would go before them. Aaron took their gold and made a golden calf for them to worship. The following day they made a feast and worshipped this so called god and offered sacrifices to it (Ex. 32:1-6). Ironically, the children of Israel were breaking the first two commandments by their sinful acts;

1. You shall have no other gods before me.

2. You shall not make for yourself an idol… (Ex. 20:3-4).

Both the LORD and Moses were angry with the children of Israel and, as a result, Moses ordered the Levites to take swords and have them go throughout the camp and bring judgment upon the people. About three thousand people were killed that day as a result of this great sin (Exodus 32:25-28).

Moses went up to the LORD the following day and offered his own life for the sake of the nation of Israel but God told Moses that only the person who sins will be blotted out of His book (Ex. 32:30-33). The LORD later called Moses to come up to Him again on Mt. Sinai with two stone tablets in order for the LORD to replace the prior two tablets that Moses had broken (Ex. 34:1-4). Moses did as the LORD commanded him and forty days later Moses descended with two new tablets with the Ten Commandments inscribed on them:

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. – Ex. 34:27-28

Fifteen chapters of the Bible and at least 80 days pass before the children of Israel are finally able to receive the two stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments. It is with these words that God made a covenant with His people.

The Intent of The Ten Commandments

God told Moses that He had made a covenant with the Israelites based on the words that God had just spoken to him. We read that those words included the Ten Commandments but in context they also included other words which God had just spoken to Moses (Ex. 34:10-26) beginning in verse ten: “Then God said, “Behold, I am making a covenant before all the people…” (Ex. 34:10). As we read this verse in context, the words of God which were included in the covenant mentioned in Ex. 34:27 began in Ex. 34:10 and included the other ordinances which are stated in Ex. 34:10-26.

The Ten Commandments seem to represent the overall Law which God gave to the Israelites through Moses which include various ordinances and taken together these words represent the covenant of God with His people. The covenant which is detailed in Exodus 34:27-28 is an almost parallel rendering of the covenant found in Exodus 24:3-8. The only difference between these two covenants is that one was given before the golden calf incident and the other after.

In the context of the first covenant which was made in Exodus 24, we read of the Ten Commandments which were given to the people (Ex. 20) along with additional ordinances (Ex. 21 – Ex. 24) which together represent the covenant of God. The commandments and ordinances in both the prior covenant (Ex. 23) and the later covenant (Ex. 34) are nearly identical.  In both accounts God commanded the people regarding the following ordinances:

1. To conquer the Promised Land 

2. To destroy the foreign gods 

3. To keep the Sabbath 

4. To observe the three annual Feasts of the LORD.  

There is one more parallel ordinance in these two renderings of the covenant which pertains to a certain sacrifice. I want to focus on this sacrifice for the remainder of this week’s study.

The Sacrifice of The LORD

In the first account of the giving of the covenant we read the following verse which the LORD Himself spoke of a particular sacrifice:

You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor is the fat of My feast to remain overnight until morning. – Ex. 23:18

The phrase “the blood of My sacrifice” is a unique phrase that only appears in one other place in the Torah, and that is in the parallel account of the covenant which is given in Exodus 34:

You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread, nor is the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover to be left over until morning. – Ex. 34:25

In both occurrences the phrase, “the blood of My sacrifice,” immediately follows the command to observe the three annual Feasts of the LORD.  As we study this phrase there are a couple of natural questions that arise:

1. Which sacrifice is this referring to?

2. Why does the LORD refer to this sacrifice in a personal way, i.e. “My sacrifice”?

3. Why is it important to mention “the blood” of the sacrifice?

The Identity of the Sacrifice

The phrase “the blood of My sacrifice,” in Hebrew is “דם זבחי” – “dam zivchi.”  As already mentioned, this phrase is only found twice in the Torah, which is in the two verses that we are studying. The word used here for sacrifice in the Hebrew is “זבח” – “zevach” which specifically means a sacrifice on the altar.

Since the context of both of these verses immediately follows the three mandatory Feasts of the LORD, it makes logical sense that this particular sacrifice is one of the sacrifices of the three feasts.  The second account specifically refers to the Feast of Passover (Ex. 34:25) and in both accounts the LORD commanded that the blood of His sacrifice not be offered with leavened bread, which again corresponds to Passover. It is evident that this sacrifice which the LORD referred to as “My sacrifice” in both accounts is speaking of the sacrifice of Passover.

The Personal Nature of the Sacrifice

Out of all of the numerous sacrifices recorded in the Torah, including the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, none are referred to in a personal manner except the sacrifice of the Passover in these two verses. There is no outright biblical explanation for this, however, I believe that there is significant meaning in the LORD calling the Passover sacrifice, “My sacrifice.”

The Forever Sacrifice

In studying the Talmud regarding these verses I found two interesting commentaries. The first one is by Rabbi Judah who asked the following question: “Scripture saith ‘My sacrifice,’ (implying) the sacrifice which is particularly assigned to Me; and what is that? the tamid” (The Babylonian Talmud. Moed Vol. 2 Pesahim. 64a).

Rabbi Judah is concluding that the two references of “My sacrifice” in Ex. 23:18 and Ex. 34:25 are referring to the “עולת תמיד” – “olat tamid,” the “continuous sacrifice” or “forever sacrifice” spoken of in Ex. 29:38. This is interesting because Rabbi Judah is actually making a connection between the daily sacrifice, which established the presence of God in the camp of the Israelites (Ex. 29:38-46), with the “the blood of My sacrifice,” which is clearly referring to the Passover sacrifice. In essence Rabbi Judah is equating the “forever sacrifice” with the sacrifice of Passover.

All Sacrifices

The second commentary on this subject is by Rabbi Simeon who also addressed the question of why the phrase “My sacrifice” is used in these two verses. His response was the following: “when there is ‘a sacrifice’ [viz. the Paschal lamb], you are not liable on account of ‘My sacrifices’; when there is no ‘sacrifice,’ you are liable for ‘My sacrifices’” (ibid). Rabbi Simeon actually views the two separate accounts of “the blood of My sacrifice,” found in Ex. 23:18 and Ex. 34:25, as referring to two separate entities; the Passover sacrifice and all other sacrifices.  He does this by altering the text of the word “sacrifice,” making the word singular in one account and plural in the other. The end result is that Rabbi Simeon indirectly makes a connection between the Passover sacrifice (the Paschal lamb) and all other sacrifices through his commentary on these two verses in Exodus.

Through these two talmudic interpretations of the phrase “My sacrifice” we find an interesting understanding of the Passover sacrifice which is connected to “the tamid sacrifice” – “the forever sacrifice” as well as the totality of the sacrifices which are offered to the LORD.  I believe that these two rabbinic interpretations provide insight for us regarding why the LORD Himself called the Passover sacrifice “My sacrifice.” The LORD was making a prophetic declaration that the Passover sacrifice encompassed all other sacrifices combined and that He would one day fulfill this sacrifice through His own offering and by His own blood.

The Sacrifice & The Covenant

As mentioned earlier in this study, both of these verses which speak of “My sacrifice” are within the context of the covenant that the LORD made with the people of Israel and this covenant is represented in a general way by the Ten Commandments. The “preamble” to the Ten Commandments begins with these words:

Then God spoke all these words, saying, I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. – Ex. 20:1-2

The foundation of the Ten Commandments and of God’s covenant with the Jewish people is that He is the LORD God who redeemed them from Egypt. It was the LORD Himself who redeemed the Israelites out of Egypt and out of slavery by means of the Passover sacrifice.

The Sacrifice, The Covenant, & The Blood

The covenant that the LORD made with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt was based on the redemption which God Himself provided for the people through the blood of the lamb. The blood of the lamb of Passover was applied to the door posts of each home and atonement was made by the blood, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood,” (Lev. 17:11). It was by the blood of the lamb that God delivered His people out of the house of slavery in Egypt and it was on this same foundation that God made His covenant with the people.

God commanded the Israelites to observe the ordinances of His covenant, and central to this covenant was the keeping of “His Sacrifice” i.e. “My sacrifice,” the sacrifice of Passover. I believe that God called the Passover sacrifice “My sacrifice” because He wanted the people to always remember that they were redeemed from the house of slavery by means of the blood of the sacrifice of the lamb and were thereby considered part of the house of God. It was an issue of ownership and identity. Beyond this, and even more important, I believe that God was proclaiming that He would one day become the Passover sacrifice and redeem all people by His own blood.

It was no mistake that God sent His Son into the world to ultimately die as the final sacrifice of Passover. The foundation for redeeming the people of God in both the Old and New Covenants is the Passover sacrifice. The sacrifice of the Passover lamb was commanded by God in the land of Egypt and was later fulfilled by God Himself in the Land of Israel. The Passover sacrifice is God’s sacrifice!

Shabbat Shalom!

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Torah Portion: Ex. 30:11 – Ex. 34:35

Hafatara: 1 Kings 18:1-39

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