Misunderstood Temple Offerings (Korbanot)

In these last days, God is in the process of restoring a better understanding of His ways to His people. Hopefully, our understanding of the “Temple Sacrifices/Offerings is close to the original meaning God revealed to Moses and His people at Mt. Sinai. This subject is extremely important to us since: 1) it is a major part of His Torah (Law); 2) we believe Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) was the Law-Giver; and 3) our understanding of it affects our position in His coming earthly kingdom (Matt 5:19).

The offerings God required at His Temple are possibly the most misunderstood concept in Scripture. We need to understand why He required His people to bring animals, grain, fruit, oil, and wine to the Tabernacle, and later the Temple in Jerusalem. This is a brief overview and intended to stimulate thought beyond traditional teachings. Again, the Temple offerings were a crucial part, a foundational part, of God’s Holy Word, intended to teach us about Him and our Messiah.

ENGLISH WORD “SACRIFICE”

The Hebrew word “Zebach” is translate as “sacrifice” in most modern Christian Bibles. According to the Old Testament Greek Lexicon, this word can be translated as “offer.” In the New Testament Greek Lexicon, the corresponding Greek word is “Thusia.” It means: “a sacrifice, victim.” Does “sacrifice” and “offering” convey the same meaning in English?

In the religious context, the English word “Sacrifice” has a very negative connotation. It has been understood as giving something up that we did not want to give up, implying a loss. In modern days, the word sacrifice has been used to describe what occurs in pagan/satanic worship.

Our God is not as Maricon of Sinope, a 2nd century heretic, taught. He taught that the God of the Old Testament was a mean God, always punishing people, in contrast to the loving God of the New Testament. God’s offerings were NOT a form of appeasement to an angry god. This is NOT how God wants us to think about these offerings to Him that He said were holy and acceptable. The offerings were a reflection of God’s character and His ways of setting apart His worship.

HEBREW KORBANOT: “DRAW CLOSE OFFERINGS”

God’s offerings were called, in the Hebrew, “korbanot.” The singular tense of this word is “Korban.” It comes from the root word “karov,” which means ‘to be close, to draw near, present oneself, or be near.” It better describes the purpose of the Temple offerings. It ties in the concept of bringing the worshipers closer to God. Yes, there were different types of korbanot (draw-near offerings) and they served different purposes. This includes: feeding the priests who could not own land, providing items for table fellowship with the priests, storing food for distribution to the needy, and upkeep of the Temple. However, their main purpose was to bring God’s people close to Him at His earthly dwelling place. The Temple was the ONLY place where these offerings were acceptable. It is also the reason they cannot physically occur today, without a physical Temple.

There were many types of offerings and for various purposes, as we will discuss below. They were an open invitation to those in God’s Covenant to come to His house; to display their repentance; to show gratitude for what He had provided; and to draw close to His presence. In their article, “The Temple Sacrifices and Offerings,” The Temple Institute states:

• “If the definition of the korban is "to come closer," then the goal of the Temple sacrifices is nothing less than the aim of dedicating human life to a higher sphere of awareness... closer to the Creator and the source of all life. The Temple sacrifice is not an idea of giving something up or losing something of value; it strives for nearness to G-d. For as King David prayed in the book of Psalms (73:28), ‘but as for me, nearness to G-d is good’…”

Not all offerings were sin or guilt offerings. However, repentance was required prior to bringing either the sin or guilt offering. Otherwise, it would not be accepted by God. The physical action of bringing an offering does not replace the needed inward change of heart. We see this with Yeshua’s instructions in Matt. 5:23-24, where He tells a worshiper to go make restitution with his brother before bringing an offering to the Temple:

• “So if you are offering your gift at the Temple altar and you remember there that your brother has something against you, leave your gift where it is by the altar, and go, make peace with your brother. Then come back and offer your gift.”

TEMPLE KORBANOT (OFFERINGS)

Below is a brief overview of each of God’s offerings from Leviticus chapters 1 thru 5:

Leviticus 1: Olah – Burnt / Elevation / Lifted up / Ascent

• It was a free-will (voluntary) offering presented at the entrance to Tent of Meeting;

• It was completely consumed by the fire, smoke ascending to heaven;

• An atonement for sin and completely burned up (gone);

• The word olah is first used in Gen. 8:20, “Noach (Noah) built an altar to ADONAI. Then he took from every clean animal and every clean bird, and he offered burnt (olah) offerings on the altar.” (CJB);

• Sometimes accompanied petitions in a time of need (Judges 21:4, Jer. 14:12);

• Messianic Significance: Yeshua said he was an “Olah offering” in John 12:32, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”

Leviticus 2: Minhah - Grain or Meal

• It was a free-will (volunteer) offering, presented with the Olah offering at the entrance to Tent of Meeting;

• It was denoted as “a gift, especially a tribute.” It was not a blood atonement offering;

• An offering of grain, oil, salt and frankincense, baked by the offeror, completely burnt;

• It contained salt - Rabbi Hertz states, “Salt is a preservative and typifies that which is abiding; an everlasting covenant of salt – among the ancients it was a sign of friendship “to eat salt together.”

• Messianic Significance: John 6:38, Yeshua answered, "I am the bread which is life! Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever trusts in me will never be thirsty.”

Leviticus 3: Shlamim - Peace or Fellowship

• It was a free-will (volunteer) offering presented at the entrance to Tent of Meeting;

• It was NOT a sin offering;

• Both the offeror and the priest consumed it; includes unleavened bread with oil and fine flour;

• Thanksgiving and gratitude toward God’s goodness, it was also offered at the end of the Nazarite vow;

• Rabbi Rashi said the Shlamim offering represents: “One who wants to bring peace into the world.”

• Messianic Significance: Yeshua offered his whole self so that we have peace with God; our Prince of Peace. Also, when we pray for the peace of Jerusalem, we are praying for the return of Yeshua to establish world peace (Psalm 122:6).

Leviticus 4-5: Hatat - Sin or Cleansing

• This was a mandatory/required offering, burnt outside the camp;

• Atones for sins that were made unintentionally or ignorantly, that deserve the punishment of karet (being cut off);

• Offering involved a bull or lamb that was eaten by the priests;

• Offering had to be burnt outside the camp; as Yeshua was offered on the tree outside the camp;

• Messianic Significance: Messiah’s blood purifies and renders us clean upon admission of guilt (1 John 1:8-9). He died for the sin that would cause us to be “cut off” from God (1 Cor. 15:3).

Leviticus 5: Asham – Guilt / Trespass / Reparation

• Presented at the entrance to Tent of Meeting;

• Mandatory offering for the person who deliberately sinned, caused by carelessness, against fellow man and God;

• Required restitution to the injured party, plus 1/5th, including a ram offering, without blemish, that the priests ate in a holy place;

• A male goat or a lamb was required for each of the following five sins: misuse of Temple consecrated food or objects; stealing and falsely saying one hasn’t stolen; cleansing for leprosy; fornication with a maidservant; or uncleanness during a Nazarite vow.

• Messianic Significance: Yeshua’s death paid our debt. In John 19:30, Yeshua said “It is finished,” which means “It is paid in full.”

Although not mentioned here with the main offerings, the Drink (Necek) Offering, is mentioned in Gen. 35:14, Ex. 29:40-41, Num. 28:7-10. Paul speaks of being poured out like a “drink offering” in Phil. 2:17 and 2 Tim. 4:6.

These offerings, like the Aaronic priesthood, have been temporarily set aside. We are told they will return, along with the priesthood, when the next Temple is built.

GOD’S NEXT TEMPLE

These same offerings are mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel when describing the future Temple. The outer alter will be there for those who survive Jacob’s Trouble – The Great Tribulation. They will come up to Jerusalem and worship the King at His Temple (Is. 66 and Zech. 14). In Ezekiel 45:17 it states:

• “And it shall be the prince’s part to give burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and drink offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin offering, and the meat offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel.”

The main purpose of these korbanot during in the future reign of Messiah is to make reconciliation for the House of Israel, since Yeshua will be dwelling among His people.

The Scriptures tells us Yeshua will be the one who builds the next physical Temple in Jerusalem. When He returns, He shall be King over ALL the earth. We believe this Temple is Ezekiel’s Temple:

• Matt. 24:3, “Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"… For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be… Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

• Ezek. 37:21-28, “Then say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God: "Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again… I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore…”

• Zech. 6:12, “Then speak to him, saying, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, saying: "Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, And He shall build the temple of the Lord.”

• Ezek. 40:1-44: “…In the visions of God He took me into the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain; on it toward the south was something like the structure of a city… Now there was a wall all around the outside of the temple… The chamber which faces north is for the priests who have charge of the altar; these are the sons of Zadok, from the sons of Levi, who come near the Lord to minister to Him."… Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever…”

• Rev. 19:15, “Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”

The Yom Kippur offering is not mentioned in Ezekiel’s Temple description. The Letter to the Hebrews, in the Apostolic Writings, tell us that Yeshua, through His death became the Yom Kippur offering, once and for all. Therefore, there is no longer a need for an annual entry into the Holy of Holies (Hebrews 10:1-12). We believe this is where Yeshua sets up His throne. What was previously symbolic, becomes reality with His physical presence on the Mercy Seat!

JAMES AND THE ELDERS, FIRST CENTURY BELIEVERS, PAUL, AND KORBANOT

Didn’t believers in Yeshua stop making offerings at the Temple after Yeshua’s death? No.

These offerings did not cease with the death and resurrection of Messiah Yeshua. As long as there was a physical Temple, the commandments to bring the offerings were still in effect. God provided us with an example of James and the elders directing Paul to assist in a Nazarite vow offering on the outer alter in Acts 21. This was to demonstrate that Paul was NOT teaching others to break God’s commandments in the Torah. Paul had just ended his own Nazarite vow in Acts 18:18. We read in Acts 21:18-24:

• “On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. When he had greeted them, he told in detail those things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord. And they said to him, "You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law; but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. What then? The assembly must certainly meet, for they will hear that you have come. Therefore, do what we tell you: We have four men who have taken a vow. Take them and be purified with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and that all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law.”

The above describes the process God gave Israel in Numbers 6:1-15 for ending a Nazirite vow:

• “…Then the Lord spoke to Moses…'When either a man or woman consecrates an offering to take the vow of a Nazirite… 'And if anyone dies very suddenly beside him, and he defiles his consecrated head, then he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he shall shave it… 'Now this is the law of the Nazirite: When the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall be brought to the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And he shall present his offering to the Lord: one male lamb in its first year without blemish as a burnt offering, one ewe lamb in its first year without blemish as a sin offering, one ram without blemish as a peace offering, a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and their grain offering with their drink offerings.”

IN SUMMARY:

God’s korbanot (offerings) were provided to bring those in His Covenant close to Him. He never forced their return, it was always voluntary, like it is today. Since there is no Temple, the Rabbis teach that prayer is the substitute for these physical offerings. Their understanding is based on verses like Hosea 14:2:

• “Take words with you, and return to ADONAI; say to him, "Forgive all guilt, and accept what is good; we will pay instead of bulls [the offerings of] our lips.”

We see in Hebrews 13:15, an affirmation of this thought:

• “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.”

In a nutshell, God’s offerings are being carried out today through our prayers. All of our prayers should contain elements of God’s korbanot, because we still desire to draw near to Him. Our prayers are:

• Burnt (Olah) - for devotion

• Meal (Minchah) - for thanksgiving and deliverance from danger and distress

• Peace (Shlamim) - for peace, not only for Israel but for the whole world.

• Sin (Chatat) - to signify humility and for all of Israel to be teachable.

• Guilt (Asham) - symbolic of the need for honesty and integrity