Jesus as human sacrifice

inquiry

How can Jesus be a Sacrifice when Human Sacrifice is Prohibited in the
Scriptures?

response

The Lord commanded Abraham: 
"He [the Lord] said, 'Take now your son, your only son, whom you love,
Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt
offering [Hebrew "alah", H5927] on one of the mountains of which I
will tell you." (Gen 22:2).
The burnt offering is a "total dedication." Later we read:
"Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son."
(Gen 22:10)

At this point Abraham had sacrificed Isaac to the Lord. Would you
suggest that God was only kidding in His command to Abraham in Gen
22:2? When we read, "But the angel of the Lord called to him from
heaven and said, 'Abraham, Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.' He
said, 'Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to
him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld
your son, your only son, from Me.'" (Gen 22:11-12), was the Lord
telling Abraham, "I was only joking! Don't actually do it!"? The only
explanation is that, in God's eye's, Abraham in Gen 22:10 sacrificed
Isaac. To suggest otherwise makes God insincere and a
prankster. However, God supplied a substitute sacrifice:

"Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram
caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram
and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son." (Gen
22:13).

So here we have the precedent for Y'shua being a sacrifice. We
also have an image of Him as a type a substitute for ourselves - the
Lamb of God that removes our sins.

We do not have the right to take the life of a person on our own, for
all life belongs to the Lord. But the Lord has the right to give and
take a person's life and exercises that privilege every day. So, too,
the Lord sacrifices Y'shua. He uses whomever He wishes to accomplish
His tasks.

Then there is another incident that needs to be examined. Jephthah
sacrifices his only daughter in Judges 11:30-39. There we see the
sacrifice of his daughter as her being dedicated to the Lord by not
being given to any man in marriage. The Hebrew word "olah" (H5930) is
used and is related to "alah" (H5927) used in Gen 22:2. Jephthah's
daughter is a total dedication to the Lord just as Isaac was for
Abraham. The point here is to realize that sacrifice is a matter that
exists in the spiritual realm. This is what the Lord recognizes in the
Law. That is, He recognizes the spiritual reality to which the
physical is a symbolic pointer.