Well, the question I have then. Job sacrificed for his Children, would that be one animal per child, or one cover the whole group? Assuming Job was following sacrifice rules, He had to get the idea from somewhere.
Thank you..
Mike.
Mike,
Job is more of a Mashal, so the details you ask really don't lend to the thrust of what's trying to be portrayed in the story. In Short, Job sacrificing for his children was a sign of his religious zeal which affirmed God's claim, "A man who feared God". Job played by the religious rules because he was locked into them and thought righteousness came by way of obeying them. In short, his actions were wrote and only addressed the rites and rituals which never addressed, let alone changed the heart of his children or the true purpose of sacrifice which means to draw near God, not "Pay a debt" as a legal transaction.
When you say "sacrifice rules", your assuming the Mosiac "rules" I take it? When I ponder what you've asked, I ask myself, Did Melchizedek play by those same rules? What about Cain and Able? More importantly, where did Melchizedek, Cain or Able get their idea of sacrifice from and where is it documented? How about Noah when he offered his burnt offering? Job was a Gentile and not under the Sinia Covenant which ratified the Mosiac law so as such, I really don't know specifically what his system looked like and we really don't have any way to tell because that's not the important part of the story. Make sense?
In Leviticus 4 we see a sin offering for the sins of the community that were committed unintentionally, but when we read Job, we get the since that Job is offering for them for something that they may have done wrong whether they meant to or not. In that sense, it would like me stealing from Fred, then you come along and say, "Will you forgive Stovebolts because he stole from you?". That kind of smacks against the grain when it comes to Torah because you may be able to offer a sin offering for me for something I did wrong that I didn't know was wrong, but it's only after my awareness of it being wrong does the sacrifice really come into effect. Not only that, but I've got to offer a burnt offering and that's' usually with a guilt offering. Jesus pretty much sums it up when he says if you have a problem with your neighbor, go make peace with your neighbor and then come to the Altar. It's the way of Torah. Simply put, there is accountability for ones actions both to God and to man. It's like if I do you wrong but I never ask you for forgiveness and instead I go to God and ask his, well, first of all my sin wasn't against God, it was against you... So I have to start by asking you for forgiveness because it was you I trespassed. Then I can go to God for forgiveness. Job bypasses this whole process as Job is written. Again, little detail is given about the sacrifices to Job because that's not what's in focus. What is in focus is that Job is a man stuck in fear of the Lord and because he is stuck in fear, he has no love for the Lord.
Are you starting to see why your question gets harder and harder to answer?
