What evidence is there that the Sacrificial System has been fulfilled?

So the thread continued. When God demanded an offering from Adam and Eve’s first two children, Cain and Abel, God accepted Abel’s sacrifice. One reason for this was likely it was a substitute. Abel offered from the flock, whereas Cain just offered plants. Then as we move further down the line, God tests Abraham by telling him to sacrifice his one and only son Isaac. When they are going on the way, and Isaac asks, where is the lamb for the sacrifice, Abraham replies in Genesis 22:8: “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” God prevented Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, but instead had a ram sacrificed instead. Yet, the promise was that God would provide the lamb. So then Isaac’s descendents become the nation of Israel. They were enslaved by the Egyptians for 400 years, and then God freed them by destroying Egypt with the 10 Plagues. On the night in which Israel was going to be finally freed, God brought the 10th plague, the death of the firstborn. God told every Israelite family to take a spotless lamb, sacrifice it, place its blood on the door of the house, and then eat the lamb, bitter herbs, and unleavened bread. When God’s angel of death passes through Egypt, He would pass over every house that had the blood of a lamb. This was the beginning of the holiday of Passover. Again, an innocent substitute, a lamb, died in the place of sinners so that God’s judgment would pass over them. 

Well, after Israel was freed from Egypt, God told the Israelites, through Moses, to create a Tabernacle, and later a Temple, where an intricate sacrificial system would be set up. Every time an Israelite sinned, they were to make these blood sacrifices. Again, it goes back to God providing that first substitute in the Garden with the promise that one day the true Lamb of God would be the ultimate sacrifice. So for nearly 1,400 years, Israel made these sacrifices, and kept the Passover, so that the constant reminder would never be forgotten. Our sin is so bad, that the wages of sin is death! And for 1,400 years, the sacrifices kept pointing to the need of a substitute to take our penalty. But the fact that they had to keep making sacrifices proved that the blood of animals can’t actually take away our sins. Instead, it paints the picture of how God was going to save people. The ancient Israelites made these sacrifices by faith, knowing God would provide true atonement one day. So the entire Tanakh (the Scriptures Paul said Jesus died according to) painted this massive picture of the need for an innocent substitute to take our place. 

Well, God did not only show us his plan by the history of Israel and systems He ordained. He also explicitly made it clear to the prophets. Most notably, God pulled this thread together in the writings of the prophet Isaiah. A perfect man (Adam) brought forth the curse. Animals could not undo it. Therefore, it required another perfect man (the Messiah) to reverse the curse. The clearest prophecy that tells us God would send a man to be that ultimate sacrifice comes in Isaiah 53 (Yeshayahu). 

The prophecy actually starts in Isaiah 52:13 and goes all the way to the end of 53. A portion of it reads,

Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, 

and he carried our pains; 

but we in turn regarded him stricken, 

struck down by God, and afflicted. 

5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, 

crushed because of our iniquities; 

punishment for our peace was on him, 

and we are healed by his wounds. 

6 We all went astray like sheep; 

we all have turned to our own way; 

and the Lord has punished him 

for the iniquity of us all. 

In other words, He was carrying our curse. But like fools, we thought He was the one who was cursed. We failed to see it was Him being punished as payment for our sin. He was pierced because of our rebellion. Isaiah says He was crushed because our iniquities. Peace for us required punishment for Him. We are the ones who all sinned and turn away like rebellious sheep, and yet He is the one who paid the penalty for us all. Do you see how this prophecy is making it clear that God’s plan for a substitute was never meant to be bulls and goats, but it was all meant to point to this person? It is clear as day. In verse 7, He is again compared to the sacrifices of old.

He was oppressed and afflicted, 

yet he did not open his mouth. 

Like a lamb led to the slaughter 

and like a sheep silent before her shearers, 

he did not open his mouth

These verses make three things clear. First, He committed no sins Himself. He was innocent. Therefore, He was innocent like the animals from the sacrificial system. Second, He was like a lamb led to the slaughter. Here comes that lamb terminology again. This is that thread we see going all the way back to Genesis. God will provide the lamb, and here Isaiah says this person is like the Passover lamb being led to the slaughter. Well, at the end of the Tanakh, none of this came to any sense of completion or fulfillment. The man of Isaiah 53, who fulfills the sacrificial system, had not come. And a Judaism without Yeshua has no answer for this. It would be a failed promise. But thanks be to God that He always keeps His promises. It is sad that many Jewish rabbis claim the Tanakh knows nothing of a Messiah dying as a substitute for our sins, and yet we just read a chapter that makes it clear. It is not an accident that the Jewish people every single year skip over this chapter in their Haftarah synagogue readings. The rabbis have kept this truth from the people.

Praise God, however, for when the fullness of the time had come, a final prophet of the Tanakh era, Yohannan the Immerser (John the Baptist), came as the forerunner of the Messiah. When he first saw Yeshua, he recognized that Yeshua was who Isaiah was talking about here. In John 1:29, John the Baptist said of Jesus: “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Yohannan had both the Passover and the entire sacrificial system in mind. And it is amazing how perfectly Yeshua fulfilled it all. He was born of a virgin as the prophet Isaiah predicted (Isaiah 7:14), which made it to where He was not infected with the sin nature of Adam. So He was the perfect human God required. And when the time for His crucifixion came, consider these facts:

In (Shemot) Exodus 12, it lays out the rules of the Passover. On the tenth day of the first month, Nissan, the Israelites were supposed to pick out a lamb that would be sacrificed. Well, on the tenth day of Nissan, in the year AD 30, Jesus entered Jerusalem from Bethlehem on a donkey. On the same day, all the lambs being raised each year in Bethlehem for Passover sacrifice were also quietly entering Jerusalem. 

Once the lamb is selected, it is among the people for four days being inspected to make sure it is without flaw. Well, for the next four days, Jesus was in Jerusalem being tested by the leaders and found to be absolutely perfect, without any fault. That goes on until the 14th day of Nissan, which is the Passover.  Finally, it was on the 14th day of Nissan that Yeshua was publicly executed on a cross, at the same time Passover lambs were being sacrificed in Jerusalem. 

Indeed, Yeshua HaMashiach is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  

Yeshua is our Passover. He is the Passover. He is the one Passover is meant to point to. Isn’t it amazing that Yeshua, the fulfillment of Passover, actually died on Passover. Isn’t amazing that everything that happens with the Passover lambs (being selected on the 10th day, being inspected 4 days, and being slaughtered on the 14th day) happened to Yeshua? 

Not only did He fulfill the Passover and the sacrifice system in thematic way, but He matched the very details of the requirements of the sacrifice. And that is what it means for Paul to say Jesus died according to the Scriptures. Without this, the Tanakh closes with broken promises. It gives many cups half filled with hope, and it leaves them unfilled. But with Yeshua, the cups runneth over! By being the perfect sacrifice for our sins, there is no more need for the sacrificial system—that is why God abolished it one generation later. There’s no more wondering if on Yom Kippur our names will be sealed in the book of life. There’s no more fear that our sin separates us from God. And proof of this is found in this—not only did Yeshua die as our Passover on Passover, but He then rose as the firstfruits of the Resurrection on the very day of the Feast of Firstfruits. He poured out the Promised Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) seven weeks later on the Feast of Weeks. And very soon, He will fulfill remaining feasts with His second coming.

The next thread has to deal with the existence of the people Israel itself. Jews rightly hold their chosen status dear to their hearts. To be God’s chosen people is a privilege. But to what end were the Jews chosen? In Genesis (Bereshit) 12 and 15, God promised to bless ALL nations through Abraham’s seed or offspring. And so he begat Isaac, who begat Jacob, who begat the 12 sons who became the 12 tribes of Israel. Israel was called to be a holy nation and a kingdom of priests (Shemot/Exodus 19:6). The world was to see the glory of God through Israel. Well, Israel failed. Through constant sin, rebellion, and worst of all idolatry, Israel failed to live up to the calling they received as God’s chosen people. But that was point. Abraham’s seed, Israel, was actually meant to be a single offspring all along. He is one who is the fullness of Israel. He is the one that is everything Israel was supposed to be and failed to be. 

In Isaiah (Yeshayahu) the prophet really turns our minds to this idea as he begins to tell us of the Servant of the Lord in four songs. In Isaiah 49:3, the Servant of the Lord is clearly called Israel. In him the nations will come to the God of Israel. And yet, just two verses later in Isaiah 49:5 the Servant is not Israel, but is called to save Israel. Isaiah writes, “And now, says the Lord, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel might be gathered to him.” So wait a second. Israel is the Servant, but then Israel needs to be saved by the Servant. Here’s how it works, the corporate Servant of the Lord, Israel, failed. So the mission was completed by the individual Servant of the Lord, who as the ideal and true Israel, would bring Israel back to God. Well, it then moves to the final song of the Servant in Isaiah 53, where the servant again is an individual dying for the sins of Israel and the nations. So putting this together, the Old Testament shows us there is a deep connection between Israel the nation and the Messiah as Israel personified. And the Messiah would fulfill everything that corporate Israel did not, and in so doing, fulfill God’s promises concerning Israel.

If all we had was the Tanakh, then again, this would be another failed promise. But God did send the Messiah, Yeshua. God completed His divine revelation in the B’rit Hadasha (New Testament). And what does it show us? The Gospel of Matthew (Matityahu) was the Gospel written specifically for a Jewish audience, and so Matthew tailors it in such a way to show us that Yeshua indeed is the fulfillment of Israel itself. In the Jewish ordering of the Tanakh, the last book is 2 Chronicles. In Matthew, he opens with the same genealogy of kings we just finished reading in Chronicles. And from there, Matthew shows us how Yeshua is true Israel. Israel the nation was called out of Egypt. Jesus as a baby was taken to Egypt, so that God could likewise say, “Out of Egypt I called my Son” (Hoshea/Hosea 11:1). After Israel came out of Egypt, they were baptized into Moses through the Red Sea. The next scene after Yeshua comes from Egypt is He is baptized by Yohannan the Immerser (John the Baptist). After Israel passes through the water of the Red Sea, they enter the Wilderness for 40 years, where they fail at three major temptations. After Yeshua passes through the water of baptism, He is led into the Wilderness for 40 days, where He overcomes three temptations. After the 40 years are concluded, Moses gives the Law to Israel a second time from a mountain. After Yeshua’s 40 days are concluded, Matthew has Him on a mountain giving the Sermon on the Mount (an exposition of the Torah). Matthew went out of His way to show that Yeshua is the individual Servant who succeeds where the corporate Servant failed. Thus, it is true that through Israel all the nations will be blessed, because true Israel is Yeshua HaMashiach Himself. And when the people of the nations believe, they are grafted into Israel and inherit the promises of God. 

So in addition to Yeshua being the fulfillment of the Passover and Sacrificial System, He is also the fulfillment of Israel itself, being everything Israel failed to be. And in so doing, He saves both Israel and the nations, and makes us all one people. Truly, Jews fastened in faith to Yeshua are filled and complete as they were meant be, but this only can be through Yeshua the Messiah. 

God created the heavens and the earth in perfection. Adam and Eve’s sin cursed the heavens and the earth. God created humanity in perfection, but Adam and Eve’s sin cursed humanity. Sin and death completely conquered man and his environment. Yet, God promised salvation through the seed of the woman (Bereshit/Genesis 3:15). In order for salvation to be salvation, God has to fix what was broken. Well, this lets us know just from Genesis 1-3, salvation requires a new heavens and a new earth. Salvation also requires a new untainted humanity to fill that new earth. Later the prophets will tell us this much.

Later God called a people to Himself, Israel, to be His holy nation. Yet, they failed. They failed so miserably, they were exiled from the Land of Israel, and then brought back. God promised this nation would be His people forever, and yet they continued to fail. God also promised a righteous king, a descendent of David. It turns out this king and the seed of the woman were to be the same person. Well, the sons of David failed miserably. Eventually, they lost the throne, and there hasn’t been a king in Israel since 587 B.C. Yet, the prophets insist that not only would David have a Son that permanently sits on the throne, but the Son would be divine (Yeshayahu/Isaiah 9; Mikah/Micah 5). 

In light of Israel’s constant failure to keep the Old Covenant, God promised a New Covenant, where God would actually change the hearts of His people. They would be new creatures. This hinted again at the need for a new humanity. Two agents would facilitate this new humanity. The Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) would be poured out on all humanity and there would be a resurrection from the dead, forever reversing the curse. There would be no more death. Well, if there is going to be a new humanity made up of immortal, Holy Spirit filled people, then this cursed world will have to be replaced too. Thus, Isaiah 65:17 promises a new heaven and a new earth. 

So pretty much the Tanakh leaves us waiting for a new heaven, new earth, new humanity, a new covenant, a perfected Israel, the salvation of the nations, the pouring out of the Ruach HaKodesh, and the arrival of an immortal Messiah to inherit the throne of David. If all we have is the Tanakh, then it is one massive failure. For in that case, God would have made all these promises from 1,400-400 B.C., only to then do nothing for the next 2,500 years! That makes no sense. God can’t end it that way. And He certainly would not leave it to the hands mere humans (the rabbis) to reinvent and reinterpret His promises. 

Yet, when one opens up the pages of the B’rit Hadasha (New Testament), we see the promises begin to come together. The seed of the woman and the Messiah are Yeshua, the God-Man who died for our sins so that God could make us into the new humanity. He pours the Ruach HaKodesh upon us as a down payment, thus making us a new humanity right now in part, and will bring it in fullness at the resurrection. He already started the resurrection by resurrecting Himself as the first fruits. For the last 2,000 years He has been saving people from the nations, to where now the God of Israel is known all over the world. The New Covenant has arrived, where God gives us the circumcised heart He mentioned to Moses back in D’varim/Deuteronomy 30:6. Once we gather God’s chosen out of all the nations, then He will close out all the other promises, and all will be fulfilled. Clearly, the Tanakh necessitates a completion of divine revelation, and that completion is found only in the B’rit Hadasha (New Testament). 

So what can we say? Clearly Yeshua is the Messiah and is the fulfillment of all God’s promises. He is the fulfillment of every pattern, or type and shadow, that God provided through His actions and commands within history. This is most clearly seen in the sacrificial system, but there are many more examples that can be offered. It is no coincidence that after the sacrifice of Yeshua, the Temple sacrifices stopped within one Jewish generation. And even during the course of that generation, the scarlet thread on Yom Kippur never turned white again (Rosh HaShanah 31b). This is because He fulfilled the entire system of sacrifices. And perhaps most poignant, all of Israel’s hopes and dreams are fulfilled in Yeshua because He is Himself Israel in the truest sense. We pray that seeing these truths all across the Scriptures convinces you of the need to receive Yeshua as Lord and Messiah. When Paul the Apostle was writing about the present and future of Israel, he said in Romans 10:9-10, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.” This was true 2,000 years ago. This is true now. When Israel receives her Messiah, the future promises will come (Romans 11:15). We pray that anyone reading this that does not know the Lord will come to know Him today. 

By Stephen Feinstein