Who designed and instituted the sacrificial system? Many claim that God gave it to Moses. But Yahweh said He didn't do it:
For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: Jeremiah 7:22
This confusing conundrum will be saved for a future study.
David, a man after Yahweh's heart, understood this:
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Psalms 40:6
For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of Elohim are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O Elohim, thou wilt not despise. Psalms 51:16-17
So did David's son, Solomon:
To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to יהוה [Yahweh, our god] than sacrifice. Proverbs 21:3
Yahweh, through His prophets, says:
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith יהוה [Yahweh]: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Isaiah 1:11-12
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of Elohim more than burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6
Neverless, Yahweh did use this system as a shadow (example) of His plan.
The important, defining question is not "Who started the sacrificial system?", BUT "What ended the sacrificial system?"
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people [plural] of the prince that shall come [they] shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he [Messiah] shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he [Messiah] shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. Daniel 9:26-27
Jews claim that the sacrificial system was halted (temporarily*) because of the destruction of their temple. Daniel prophesied this destruction ("the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary").
But we are told this is NOT the reason the sacrifices stopped. The prophet Daniel tells us that Messiah "shall confirm the covenant with many" and HE "shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease".
Why?
Because Yahweh (Himself) prepared a better sacrifice.
Hold thy peace at the presence of the Sovereign יהוה [Yahweh]: for the day of יהוה [Yahweh] is at hand: for יהוה [Yahweh] hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of יהוה's [Yahweh's] sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. Zephaniah 1:7-8
So, we have two opinions, two opposite scenarios:
1. The Jews say that Yahweh started the sacrificial system, but the Romans (temporarily*) halted it.
2. Yahweh says He didn't order it, but, through His Messiah, He certainly ended it.
We do know that the sacrifices stopped. Why did they cease? Who are we to believe? Yahweh or man?
Both possible ending events are foretold in the prophecy of Daniel 9:26-27 - The destruction of the sanctuary by Rome and the end of the sacrificial system by the Messiah.
If one believes the Jews (that the Roman destruction of the temple halted the system), one has to believe that the Messiah has not yet come and that Yahweh and His prophets lied about how this system would end, but Yahweh doesn't lie.
If one believes that Yahweh, through His Messiah ended the system (Daniel 9:27), one has to believe that Yahushua, seed of the woman, is the Messiah.
Completely ignoring Daniel's prophecy for a moment, either Satan through his proxies controls the world, or Yahweh does. Either Satan, through Rome ended the sacrifices, or Yahweh, through His Messiah did.
Paul discusses the "better sacrifice" prophesied in Zephaniah 1:7-8.
It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Hebrews 9:23,26
Just as the death of animals in sacrifice was NOT Yahweh's plan, neither was the death of His Son. The cross, was NOT the sacrifice. See What Was Messiah's Sacrifice?
* In order to restore the sacrificial system, the Jews need their temple, sacred fire, and priesthood restored. This won't happen, because what Yahweh has ended, is ended.
