Subject: Why different directions required |
Bible Note: Azure, I did some googling and did come up with this little nugget: The Temple: Its Ministry and Services Alfred Edersheim Chapter 5 Sacrifices: Their Order and Their Meaning The Acts of Sacrifice The Rabbis mention the following five acts as belonging to the offerer of a sacrifice: the laying on of hands, slaying, skinning, cutting up, and washing the inwards. These other five were strictly priestly functions: catching up the blood, sprinkling it, lighting the altar fire, laying on the wood, bringing up the pieces, and all else done at the altar itself. The whole service must have been exceedingly solemn. Having first been duly purified, a man brought his sacrifice himself 'before the Lord'—, to 'the door of the Tabernacle' (Lev 1:3; 4:4), where the altar of burnt-offering was (Exo 40:6), and in the Temple into the Great Court. If the sacrifice was most holy, he entered by the northern; if less holy, by the southern gate. Next he placed it so as to face the west, or the Most Holy Place, in order thus literally to bring it before the Lord. To this the apostle refers when, in Romans 12:1, he beseecheth us to present our 'bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.' It's not much, but it's a start? |