If we have to obey the Law why do we not sacrifice animals today ?

A common question among those that do not obey the Heavenly Father's Law is, "Well if you keep the Law why don't you sacrifice animals today?"

The reason is rather simply. ONLY the priest were allowed to offer a sacrifice.

Num 18:7-8 "But you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and inside the veil, and you are to perform service. I am giving you the priesthood as a bestowed service, but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death. ''Then Yahuweh spoke to Aaron,""Now behold, I Myself have given you charge of My offerings, even all the holy gifts of the sons of Israel I have given them to you as a portion and to your sons as a perpetual allotment.”

So you see the sacrifices HAD to be done by the priest and they had to be made in the Temple, we, the laymen, were never allowed to offer up the sacrifices. And since the priesthood is not with us today, and because of the destruction of Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, no sacrifices are made today.

And that is the reason we do not sacrifice today.

Allow me to explain a little further.

Some people don't realize that Yahuweh commanded sacrifices for a variety of reason in His Law. For instance, when a baby was born after the days of purification, which was 33 days for a male and 66 days for a female (Lev 12:4-5) a lamb and a turtledove or 2 turtledoves were to be offered by the priest (Matt 2:24; Lev 12:6-8).

Or when a leper was cured of his leprosy he was commanded to go to the priest to present an offering (Matt 8:4: Lev 14:10-14)

These sacrifices along with the sacrifices for "unintentional" sin had to be made exclusively by the Priest. If someone other then a priest were to approached the alter, like you or I, they would be put the death (Num 18:7-8). Such sacrifices as these continued to be offered even after the death of the Savior.

For instance Paul himself, continued to make sacrifices in the Temple long after the death of the Messiah. For example in Acts 21:17-26 (which was commented on in Part 1), when Paul, who was under a Nazarite vow (Act 18:18) came to Jerusalem, the apostle James who was the head of the assembly in Jerusalem at that time, informed Paul how there were literally 1,000's of Jews who had come to faith in Messiah and they "mistakenly" thought that Paul was speaking and teaching against the Law. So to prove to these Jews that there was "nothing to the things which they thought" concerning Paul (Act 21:24), James had Paul and 4 other men who were also under a Nazarite vow, go to the Temple to complete their vow by 'purifying themselves and offering up the required sacrifices.'

Act 21:26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying himself along with them, went into the temple giving notice of the completion of the days of purification, until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them.

There's no question that it was a Nazerite vow that Paul and these four men were under, and there were 3 sacrifices that had to made at the completion of the Nazarite vow. That's 3 sacrifices for Paul and the 4 other men that were under the vow. (Num 6:14-20). Again keeping in mind this was approximately 17 years AFTER the death of the Messiah. (Gal 1:18; 2:1)

Why were these sacrifices still offered after the death of the Messiah? Because the Messiah did not die to become a substitute for 'all' the sacrifices, such as the sacrifice for 'purification' of a new born child, or the sacrifice of a leper being healed, nor any of the other sacrifices. He died to became a sacrifice exclusively for the SINS we could not be justified for by the Law (Num 15:30-31).

Heb 10:12 "...but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of Yahuweh."

All other sacrifices ceased when the Temple was destroyed in AD 70 and the priesthood temporarily ended. When the 3rd Temple is build, which the Messiah, Yahoshua, himself will build (Zech 6:11-13), all the sacrifices will be brought back (Ezek 44; Jer 33:17-18), except the sacrifice for sin which the Messiah died for.

And that is why we don't sacrifices animals today, because the Priest were the ONLY ones allowed to make the sacrifices and it had to be done in the Temple.

The Messiah, Yahoshua, did not die as a substitute for "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons" when a child was born (Luk 2:24) or for the "two male and one female lamb" that had to be offered in the cleansing of a leper (Lev 14:10), he died as a sacrifice "for sin" once and for all (Heb 10:12)