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“And whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord…it shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein” (Leviticus 22:21).
In the Old Testament the children of Israel were to offer animal sacrifices to the Lord, because the Lord Jesus had not yet come and died on the cross. The Israelites looked ahead to the death of the Lord Jesus, and those sacrifices were pictures of the Lord Jesus. They also reminded the Israelites of the seriousness of sin, for an animal had to die, in order for their sin to be covered. But no animal sacrifice could really take away sin, for we read in Hebrews 10:11, “Every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.” Only the blood of the Lord Jesus can wash away our sins.
Whenever the Israelites offered a sacrifice, it was to be a perfect animal, without any blemish in it. It could not be lame, or have only one eye, or be sick, or anything like that. It had to be perfect, for the Lord Jesus was perfect, and the animal was a picture of Him.
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