Jesus Ended The Ages Of Animal Sacrifices
The Book of Hebrews is about Jesus establishing the eternal age of the new covenant of grace through the sacrifice of himself for all sins, for all people, for all time.
Through his sacrifice, Jesus eternally ended the ages of animal sacrifices for sins.
Hebrews 9:26 says,
"But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."
Sacrifice for sins in Hebrews presents a contrast between the ongoing sacrifices of animals for the forgiveness of sins and the one-time sacrifice of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.
We read about animal sacrifices for sins in Genesis 3 when God would have needed to sacrifice an animal or animals to clothe Adam and Even in skins.
The death of the animal was a substitutionary death in the place of Adam and Eve.
The animal died in their place, foreshadowing that Jesus would die in our place.
Animal sacrifices for sins continued through the ages of the Bible...
- Abel (Genesis 4:4)
- Noah (Genesis 8:20)
- Abraham (Genesis 15:9-10)
- God (Genesis 22:13)
- Jacob (Genesis 35:54)
- The Exodus (Exodus 12:3-6)
- Jethro (Exodus 18:12)
- The people of Israel (Exodus 24:5 through the destruction of the temple in AD 70).
- Joseph and Mary (Luke 2:22-24)
- Jesus told the people of Israel to offer animal sacrifices (Matthew 5:23-24; Matthew 8:4; Luke 5:14)
All of these animal sacrifices were made during the biblical ages of animal sacrifices for sins.
Jesus came to end these ages by sacrificing himself once on the cross for the sins of everyone...for all time.
With his one sacrifice, Jesus ended the ages of animal sacrifices.
Sadly, the nation of Israel rejected Jesus and his sacrifice for their sins and continued to sacrifice animals.
God was not going to allow Israel to continue to sacrifice animals.
In AD 70, Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed by the Roman armies as foretold by Jesus (Matthew 23-24; Mark 13; Luke 21).
With this destruction, the biblical ages of animal sacrifices for sins ended.
