Together, the 3 offerings, the ‘Olah, Minchah, and Zevah, established and maintained peace and fellowship with Jehovah despite man’s inherent sinful nature.ĭiscussing sin and atonement is like that. The Peace offering established a fellowship, shalom, between the worshipper and God Almighty, that could not occur until a) God found the worshipper acceptable to Him, and b) tribute….that could also be viewed as a ransom….was paid. The Peace offering next built upon the work of the ‘Olah and Minchah. After the ‘Olah made the worshipper approachable and acceptable to God (no one can approach God until he’s FIRST acceptable to God), then the worshipper may offer a gift to God. The Minchah built upon what was accomplished by the ‘Olah. The Hebrew sense of the word is that the worshipper is allowed to “come-near” the Lord….to approach the Lord. The ‘Olah first got God’s attention, and then provided a means for God to view the worshipper favorably….that is the worshipper became acceptable to God by means of the ‘Olah. Each had different purposes and occasions for their use. So to me when the blood was put on the horns of the altar it had to do with the power inherent in the symbolism of the altar as the object on which the sacrifices were consumed.ģ different sacrifices, also called “offerings”: the ‘Olah……the burnt offering the Minchah……the grain offering and the Zevah….the peace offering. Here is another text that is perhaps a bit clearer on the point, “And I said, ‘What are these coming to do?’ So he said, ‘These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one could lift up his head but the craftsmen are coming to terrify them, to cast out the horns of the nations that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it’' (Zec 1:21 NKJV). ‘He will give strength to His king, And exalt the horn of His anointed.’' (1Sam 2:10 NKJV) show that it doesn’t have to be strictly a “vertical dimension of salvation” since salvation is only vertical without a horizontal dimension (Eze 14:14-20 Eze 18:20). The LORD will judge the ends of the earth.

Texts such as, “The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken in pieces From heaven He will thunder against them. For instance, in the books of Daniel and Revelation horns are used quite a bit and they all depict a power of some sort mostly of kings or king types such as the little horn of Dan 7 which we believe represents the Roman Catholic Church. To the ancient Jew horns were a symbol of power. “The horns were the highest points of the altar and, as such, could signify the vertical dimension of salvation.” Yes, I believe they could but if one would do a word study of “horn” or “horns” I think a slightly different picture would emerge. How does the sanctuary service help us to understand our utter dependence on God for forgiveness of our sins? What comfort does this truth bring you? At the same time, what important responsibilities follow? (See 1 Peter 1:22.) This is central to the plan of salvation. Thanks to the death of Jesus, symbolized by those sacrifices, our sin has been taken away from us, placed on Him, and transferred to the heavenly sanctuary. 6:27, NKJV).įinally, the burning of the fat on the altar indicated that everything about the purification offering belonged to God ( Lev. The garment needed to be cleansed, not just anywhere, but only “in a holy place” ( Lev. We find an example of this defiling in cases where the blood of the purification offering splashed accidentally on a garment. The blood smeared on the horns of the altar transferred sin away from the sinner to the sanctuary, a crucially important truth in order for us to understand the plan of salvation as revealed in the earthly sanctuary service, which symbolizes the work of Christ in heaven for us.īecause the blood carried sin, it also defiled the sanctuary. Although the text is referring to altars involved in idolatrous worship, the principle remains the same: the altar reflected the moral condition of the people. Jeremiah 17:1 is of particular importance for understanding what happens: the sin of Judah is engraved “upon the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars” (NASB).

The blood was brought into the presence of God. What did it mean to smear blood on the horns of the altar? The horns were the highest points of the altar and, as such, could signify the vertical dimension of salvation. 4:25, 30) if the high priest or the entire congregation was the sinner, the blood was applied to the inner altar, the altar of incense ( Lev. If the sinner was a commoner or a leader, the blood was applied on the altar of burnt offering ( Lev. Because blood was involved, this ritual part had to do with atonement ( Lev. The priest applied the sacrificial blood to the horns of the altar. After the laying on of hands and the death of the animal, the next ritual activity in the offering was the handling of the blood.

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