Transfigured from Glory to Glory: Part One

Re-enchanting Worship: A Survey of Sacrificial Worship in the Old Testament

Introduction

From the very beginning of the biblical narrative, we see that worship of Yahweh is rooted in sacrifice. 

The first act of sacrificial worship is initiated by God Himself in Genesis 3:21, when He provides garments of animal skins to cover Adam and Eve after the fall. This moment marks the prototype of worship as sacrifice in response to human sin, showing that fellowship with God requires the shedding of blood. The first bloodshed in history was for the purpose of clothing Adam and Eve, setting the pattern for how worship would continue throughout the history of redemption. This act of sacrifice not only covered physical nakedness but also provided a symbolic atonement for their spiritual shame, prefiguring the sacrifices that would come later. Worship, from its inception, is thus sacrificial at its core, initiated by God’s grace and fulfilled by human response.

This introduction to sacrifice sets the stage for how worship is portrayed throughout the rest of the Old Testament, a theology that will be developed in key events and covenants that follow. This essay will explore how worship as sacrifice unfolds from the first offering in the Garden, through the stories of Cain and Abel, Noah, the patriarchs, and finally culminates in the sacrificial system formalized in Israel under Moses. By exploring this trajectory, we will see that the concept of sacrifice is not merely ritualistic but deeply theological, shaping the entire framework of worship for the people of God.

The Worship of Cain and Abel

The first post-Edenic act of worship comes in Genesis 4 with the story of Cain and Abel. The distinction between the two brothers is not simply one of ritual but one of heart and theology. 

Abel offers a blood sacrifice from the firstborn of his flock, while Cain offers fruit from the ground that was cursed in the chapter prior (See Genesis 3). God accepted Abel’s offering and rejected Cain’s, signaling a divine preference for blood sacrifice, which corresponds to the covering God had made for Adam and Eve. Abel’s sacrifice of the firstborn points forward to the sacrificial system in Israel and to the eventual sacrifice of Christ. It reveals that true worship recognizes the cost of sin and the necessity of blood for atonement. Abel’s offering, made in faith (Heb. 11:4), aligns with the principles of sacrificial worship established by God, whereas Cain’s offering does not.

This distinction reveals that worship is not just about the external act but the heart behind it. Worship must be rooted in love and obedience to God’s order, not in self-directed piety or convenience. The heart of worship is sacrifice but sacrifice in accordance with God’s revealed will. Cain’s failure to offer what was acceptable led not only to God’s rejection but also to his eventual estrangement from God and humanity. The lesson is clear: worship that is not sacrificial in the way God requires ultimately leads to separation from God.

Worship After the Flood

After the flood, Noah becomes a pivotal figure in the narrative of biblical worship, embodying the continuation and deepening of sacrificial practice. Upon leaving the ark, Noah's first recorded act is to build an altar to the Lord, an action that highlights the centrality of sacrifice in worship (Genesis 8:20). This altar, potentially constructed using wood from the ark itself, represents a place where heaven and earth meet—a significant theme throughout the bible. Noah then offers burnt offerings from every clean animal and bird, underscoring the importance of distinguishing between clean and unclean animals in the sacrificial system that will later be codified in the Mosaic law.

As the smoke of Noah's offering rises, it ascends to God as a "pleasing aroma," a vivid expression of divine acceptance of the sacrifice and the renewal of God's favor over creation. Theologically, this ascending smoke carries profound symbolism. It represents the offering—something earthly—being transformed and returned to God in the heavens. This vertical movement of the sacrifice parallels the later Levitical ascension offerings, where the sacrificial animal is wholly consumed, and its essence rises as smoke, returning to God as a fragrant offering (Leviticus 1:9). This ascending motion signifies more than just physical transformation; it points to a deeper spiritual reality, where the worshiper, through sacrifice, participates in an act of communion with God. Worship, in this sense, becomes a means of reconciling the created with the Creator, reminding us that every true act of worship involves offering something earthly, which, through divine mediation, is made acceptable and returns to heaven.

Furthermore, Noah is then depicted in a garden-vineyard scene, which typologically places him as a new Adam, returning to a kind of restored paradise. The imagery of the vineyard evokes Edenic motifs, where humanity was originally placed in a garden to tend and keep it (Genesis 2:15). Noah's role here suggests that the post-flood world is a renewed creation, where the covenant with God is reestablished, and humanity's worship, centered on sacrifice, is an essential part of this restored order. The return to the garden signals not merely a physical renewal but a spiritual return to a sacred space where man meets God through sacrifice and obedience.

This act mirrors the pattern of sacrifice initiated by God in Eden and reveals the continued necessity of blood sacrifice as the means by which humanity communes with God. Noah’s worship is pleasing to God, who responds with a covenant promise never to destroy the earth again by flood. Noah’s act of worship shows that true worship always begins with sacrifice, for it is in the sacrifice that God meets His people and enters into covenant with them.

Noah’s sacrifice also serves a cosmic function. Noah’s offering restores harmony between heaven and earth, signaling the reestablishment of the world after the flood and pointing forward to the ultimate renewal of creation. Noah’s sacrificial worship is thus not only an act of personal devotion but an act of cosmic significance, reconciling the world to God and pointing forward to the final redemption that will come through Christ.

Sacrifice in the Worship of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

The theme of sacrifice plays a central role in the lives of the patriarchs, particularly in the life of Abraham. His journey is marked by numerous acts of sacrificial worship, yet none is as theologically significant as the event recorded in Genesis 22, where God tests him by commanding him to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering.

God's command to Abraham in Genesis 22 carries several layers of meaning. First, it follows Abraham's earlier attempt to secure an heir through human effort, despite God's promise to give him descendants. In this light, Isaac's sacrifice can be interpreted as a kind of symbolic "guilt offering," where Abraham's obedience demonstrates repentance and atonement for his earlier lack of faith. This test of Abraham's reliance on God's timing reveals that true worship involves both repentance and complete trust in God's promises, even when those promises seem impossible.

Second, the binding of Isaac prefigures the ultimate sacrifice of Christ. In typological terms, Isaac foreshadows Jesus Christ, the true Son offered by His Father. Just as Isaac was laid on the altar, Christ willingly bore the cross. Yet in both cases, divine intervention occurs—God provides a ram as a substitute for Isaac, while in Christ's case, He becomes the substitute for God’s elect people. This event encapsulates the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, where the innocent dies in place of the guilty, pointing forward to the gospel’s core truth.

This pivotal moment, often referred to as the “binding of Isaac,” is not only a personal trial for Abraham but also a critical juncture in the development of biblical theology. It reveals that worship, at its core, requires total obedience and trust in God's provision, even in the face of great personal cost. Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac displays his deep faith, while God's provision of a ram as a substitute introduces the foundational principle of substitutionary atonement—a key theme that resonates throughout the Scriptures and finds its fulfillment in the sacrificial work of Christ.

In this sense, the story of Abraham and Isaac encapsulates the core of sacrificial worship—offering to God what is most precious, trusting that He will provide atonement.

Similarly, Jacob’s worship is deeply intertwined with sacrifice, as he repeatedly constructs altars to the Lord at pivotal moments throughout his journeys. These altars are not merely locations for ritual offerings; they are symbolic recreations of the cosmic mountain of paradise—a sacred space where heaven and earth meet. Each altar can be seen as a miniature mountain, pyramid, or ziggurat, offering a way for Jacob to ascend ritually into the presence of God. In this way, the patriarchal narrative emphasizes that sacrifice is not merely a ritualistic obligation, but a profound means of maintaining and deepening covenantal fellowship with Yahweh. The act of building these altars underscores Jacob's recognition of divine encounters and his desire to restore the relational harmony that was present in Eden. This connection of sacrifice with cosmic ascent points to a larger theological truth: worship involves the return of creation to its Creator, ritually enacted through the offering of sacrifice.

Israel and the Sacrificial System

The establishment of the sacrificial system in Israel under Moses formalizes the theology of worship that has been developing throughout Genesis. The Book of Leviticus outlines a complex system of sacrifices, each with its specific purpose and meaning. These sacrifices include the guilt offering, the ascension offering (often referred to as the burnt offering), and the peace offering. Each of these offerings reveals a different dimension of sacrificial worship.

• The Guilt Offering: Leviticus 5:5-6 outlines the guilt offering, which was required for specific sins. This offering acknowledges human guilt before a holy God and provides a means of atonement. The guilt offering is not merely about sin removal, but about restoring the worshiper to the right relationship with God and the community. It deals with both the vertical (God-human) and horizontal (human-community) aspects of worship.

• The Ascension Offering: The ascension offering (Leviticus 1:9) symbolizes total consecration to God. The animal is wholly consumed, representing the worshiper’s complete surrender to Yahweh. The ascension offering is the heart of worship because it represents the entire person being given to God, ascending to Him in the smoke as a pleasing aroma. The offering emphasizes that worship is not just about forgiveness but about offering one’s life in total devotion to God.

• The Peace Offering: The peace offering (Leviticus 3:1-5) symbolizes restored fellowship with God. Unlike the ascension offering, the peace offering is shared between God, the priests, and the worshiper, symbolizing communion. This meal offering points forward to the Lord’s Supper, where believers participate in the ultimate peace offering—Christ’s sacrifice. The peace offering is a foretaste of the eschatological meal in which all of creation will be reconciled and brought into harmony with its Creator.

There is a layer of mystical understanding of sacrifice. In every sacrifice, there is an ascent to the divine through a series of sacred acts, each one drawing the worshiper closer to the transcendent God. The sacrificial system in Israel thus serves not only as a means of atonement but also as a means of communion, where the worshiper ascends to God through the act of sacrifice.

Conclusion: Worship as Sacrifice in the Fulfillment of Christ

The Old Testament’s theology of worship, centered on sacrifice, finds its fulfillment in the New Testament with the sacrifice of Christ. 

Hebrews 10:1-14 makes it clear that all the sacrifices of the Old Covenant were mere shadows of the perfect sacrifice that Christ would offer on the cross and of the bloodless sacrificial worship that the church now possesses. Christ’s sacrifice does not abolish the Old Testament system; rather, it transfigures it, turning the temple sacrifices into the Eucharistic worship of the New Covenant. The sacrifice of Christ brings an end to the need for blood sacrifices, but it does not end the principle of worship as sacrifice. Now, believers are called to offer spiritual sacrifices—prayers, praise, and their very lives (Romans 12:1; Hebrews 13:15).

Worship remains sacrificial at its core, but the nature of the sacrifice has changed. In the New Covenant, worship is no longer about offering animals but about participating in the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ through the Eucharist and through offering ourselves as living sacrifices. The Old Testament’s sacrificial system points forward to this reality, teaching us that true worship always involves giving up something costly, whether it is an animal, grain, or ultimately, our lives.

In conclusion, the Old Testament provides a rich theology of worship that centers on sacrifice. From the Garden to the temple, worship is always about coming before a sacrifice and offering something of worth to God. From the covering of Adam and Eve in the Garden to the sacrifices of Abel, Noah, and the patriarchs, and culminating in the formal sacrificial system given to Israel, the concept of sacrificial worship remains central. The sacrificial system under the Mosaic covenant, with its guilt, ascension, and peace offerings, lays the foundation for understanding worship in light of God's holiness, human sinfulness, and the need for atonement and communion with God. 

Each stage of redemptive history, from Genesis to Leviticus, points forward to the ultimate sacrifice of Christ, who fulfills and transforms the sacrificial worship of the Old Testament into the spiritual sacrifices of the New Covenant. True worship has always been and continues to be rooted in sacrificial offering—ultimately culminating in the self-offering of Christ, who is both the high priest and the sacrifice.