Some who are critical of the Old Testament say it has an inordinate focus on things such as sacrifices and offerings and other perceived hoops laid out by God to show one’s love for Him and reflect one’s pursuits in abiding by what God wants in the many Laws of the Old Testament. Some say the Old Testament implies that if you just abide by these laws, including the sacrifices and offerings to be made, God will hold you in high esteem. The critics may hold that the Old Testament is God’s way of saying, ‘If you love me, you will obey my laws; that’s it.’
But that wasn’t enough, since there weren’t enough people who signed on to the idea of loving the one true God who created the universe and whose heavens declare His Glory. And as God implies in John 3:16-17, those who don’t love God will be doomed to a fate they won’t like. So, God commissions Jesus to save the world.
In doing so, he worked to assure the Hebrews, among those who listened to Jesus’ sermons, that he did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it, iotas, dots and all as it says in Matthew 5:17–20. After Jesus returns to God, the disciples of his preachings reasoned that a new tact was needed to convince the people, both Hebrews and others, that there is one God to love and to be saved by. And so, for instance, whoever spoke to the Hebrews in the Book of Hebrews, reasoned that they should “leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works.”
The person who spoke regarded the “elementary doctrine of Christ” to involve the Old Testament, including the required sacrifices and offerings to lay a path toward repentance. And the same person in Hebrews 10:1-4 says, ‘How many times should these sacrifices and offerings be made? They’re made years after year and have they really helped?’ What was the speaker’s rationale for holding these sacrifices and offerings up as useless actions? He says in Verses 6 and 7 that Jesus says to God, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired…in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.” Coincidently, David in Psalms 51:16 says to Him, in asking for His Forgiveness, “[Y]ou will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.” Was Jesus thinking of David when he talked with God above about sacrifices and offerings? May make one wonder.
And what about Amos 5:21–24, also in the Old Testament, when God says “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.” Seems even God rejects some of the offerings He requires as part of the Old Testament Law when He is critical of those who have gone astray.
The speaker in Hebrews, whose name is not known, says whoever knows of the Old Testament with its sacrifices, offerings and celebrations to be had every year, it’s time to lay these aside along with other things in the OT that can be considered elementary. This is analogous to somebody walking into a classroom in elementary school and finding that all grownup people are sitting in that class, each behind their classroom desks, relearning the ABC’s and 123’s, and telling them ‘You know these things! Time to go up to a new level in your learning, to, say, high school?’
But that wasn’t enough, since there weren’t enough people who signed on to the idea of loving the one true God who created the universe and whose heavens declare His Glory. And as God implies in John 3:16-17, those who don’t love God will be doomed to a fate they won’t like. So, God commissions Jesus to save the world.
In doing so, he worked to assure the Hebrews, among those who listened to Jesus’ sermons, that he did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it, iotas, dots and all as it says in Matthew 5:17–20. After Jesus returns to God, the disciples of his preachings reasoned that a new tact was needed to convince the people, both Hebrews and others, that there is one God to love and to be saved by. And so, for instance, whoever spoke to the Hebrews in the Book of Hebrews, reasoned that they should “leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works.”
The person who spoke regarded the “elementary doctrine of Christ” to involve the Old Testament, including the required sacrifices and offerings to lay a path toward repentance. And the same person in Hebrews 10:1-4 says, ‘How many times should these sacrifices and offerings be made? They’re made years after year and have they really helped?’ What was the speaker’s rationale for holding these sacrifices and offerings up as useless actions? He says in Verses 6 and 7 that Jesus says to God, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired…in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.” Coincidently, David in Psalms 51:16 says to Him, in asking for His Forgiveness, “[Y]ou will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.” Was Jesus thinking of David when he talked with God above about sacrifices and offerings? May make one wonder.
And what about Amos 5:21–24, also in the Old Testament, when God says “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.” Seems even God rejects some of the offerings He requires as part of the Old Testament Law when He is critical of those who have gone astray.
The speaker in Hebrews, whose name is not known, says whoever knows of the Old Testament with its sacrifices, offerings and celebrations to be had every year, it’s time to lay these aside along with other things in the OT that can be considered elementary. This is analogous to somebody walking into a classroom in elementary school and finding that all grownup people are sitting in that class, each behind their classroom desks, relearning the ABC’s and 123’s, and telling them ‘You know these things! Time to go up to a new level in your learning, to, say, high school?’
