By definition, priests offer sacrifices. A non-sacrificing priest is a contradiction in terms. The levitical priests had their sacrifices under the old covenant. They were ineffective, of course, but nevertheless they had them, and they offered them again and again. Why? What did those sacrifices represent? What was going on when those priests offered their God-appointed sacrifices to God? In the first instance, when the levitical priests offered the appointed sacrifices to God, particularly the blood of those sacrifices, they were actually worshipping God through the ceremonial death of a victim, through the blood which they were offering to him, and which he was pleased to accept. More particularly, they were worshipping God by means of sacrifice for sin. And this sacrificial worship, this offering of a sacrifice for atonement, is the highest aspect of worship. |