The Sacrificial System

Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and trust in the Lord.  Psalm 4:5  NASB

Sacrifices of righteousness – What are the sacrifices of righteousness?  We need to know if we’re going to follow this command.  We don’t want to make mistakes.  We don’t want to ignore what is necessary?  We want to do what God demands.  So, we have to know.  What does zibḥe-ṣedeq mean?

The first thing we find is that the term zebaḥ covers a lot of ground.  “Generic noun often linked with offerings (Ps 40:6 [H 7]) or burnt offerings (I Sam 6:5; Ex 10:25). It is frequently used in connection with peace offerings (šĕlāmîm, cf. Lev 3:1; 17:5), but on occasion it is distinguished from peace offerings (Num 15:8: Josh 22:27). Often zebaḥ is a cognate accusative to zābaḥ, but sacrifices can also be ‘made’ (Num 6:17; I Kgs 12:27), ‘brought’ (Amos 4:4; Deut 12:6) or ‘brought near’ (Lev 7:11).”^[1]

Since there are so many possibilities, why doesn’t the poet spell it out for us?  The answer is “culture.”  The poet doesn’t need to spell out the possibilities for his audience because his readers share the same culture.  It would be like asking a modern person to spell out all the possibilities of how to drive a car.  Everyone just knows what it means.  It might be foreign to us, but it certainly wasn’t to the Hebrews in the 10^th Century BCE.  If we want to follow this command, then we will have to understand and embrace the culture of the poet, not our own.

When we investigate, we discover that the “sacrifices of righteousness” are often connected to an altar.  That already pushes us out of our modern ideas.  Secondly, the sacrifices begin as early as Noah and are involved with kosher animals or offerings.  That also changes our usual understanding.  For example, we speak of Yeshua’s “sacrifice,” but the Hebrew view wouldn’t use this term since human sacrifice was strictly forbidden.  The Passover lamb was sacrificed; human beings weren’t.  Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of his son is a significant exception precisely because YHVH did not require what the pagan gods required.  The idea of sacrifice was so ubiquitous in the culture that it became trivial, losing its value.

The centrality of sacrifices in the worship of Israel led to a perfunctory parade of animals to the altar, and God had to warn his people that the burning of fat and the outpouring of blood did not automatically win his favor. “To obey is better than to sacrifice” (I Sam 15:22) and God delights “in loyalty rather than sacrifice” (Hos 6:6). Isaiah charges that God is “fed up” with all their hypocritical offerings (1:11). Righteousness and justice are more important than sacrifice (Prov 21:3). Only when hearts are right with God are sacrifices acceptable and the means of bringing great joy (Neh 12:43). In the Psalms, thanksgiving and a broken spirit are regarded as sacrifices that honor God (Ps 50:14, 23; 51:17 [H 19]).^[2]

We must ask if our contemporary religious practices haven’t fallen to the same critique.  Israel’s constant involvement with pagan syncretism seems to be parallel to modern religious culture.  Perhaps the way to avoid this trap is also cultural.  We must recapture the thought and practice of the poet’s audience, and it seems that can only occur when we fully embrace the Hebraic worldview of the Torah.  If not, then it’s hard to see how we can offer zibḥe-ṣedeq.

Topical Index: sacrifice, zebaḥ, zibḥe-ṣedeq, altar, righteousness, Psalm 4:5

^[1] Wolf, H. (1999). 525 זָבַח. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 233). Moody Press.

^[2] Ibid.