FOR IT IS IMPOSSIBLE
FOR THE BLOOD OF BULLS AND GOATS TO TAKE AWAY SINS: adunaton gar haima tauron kai tragon aphairein (PAN) hamartias:
(8;
9:9,13;
Psalms 50:8-12;
51:16;
Isaiah 1:11-15;
66:3;
Jeremiah 6:20;
7:21,22;
Hosea 6:6;
Amos 5:21,22;
Micah 6:6-8;
Mark 12:33)
(11;
Hosea 14:2;
John 1:29;
Romans 11:27;
1 John 3:5)
Impossible
(102)
(adunatos
from a = without + dunatós = possible, able, or powerful from
dunamai = to be able or have power by virtue of inherent ability and
resources. Note
the stem duna- or dyna-
conveying the basic sense of ability or capability, power, strength, might) means impossible, incapable of being or of occurring, incapable
of being done. Adunatos is used twice to convey the idea of one who
is impotent, has no strength or lacks capability in functioning adequately,
once in a literal sense (Acts 14:8 below = powerless) and once in a
spiritual sense (Romans
15:1 = of those who do not
"strongly" believe).
Note that adunatos
is first in the Greek sentence for emphasis. It's as if the author
wants to make it blazingly, blatantly clear...."Impossible it is..."! One
can hardly miss his point. In regard to man’s moral offense, there is no
"permanent cure" effected by the physical blood of animals.
There are 26 uses in
the
Septuagint (LXX)
(Job 5:15m 16; 20:19; 24:4,
6, 22; 29:16; 30:25; 31:16, 20, 34; 34:20; 36:15, 19; Prov. 30:18; Joel
3:10) and 10 uses in the NT. One will note the obvious concentration of
"impossibilities" in the book of Hebrews!
Matthew 19:26 And looking upon
them Jesus said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God
all things are possible."
Mark 10:27 Looking upon them,
Jesus said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for all
things are possible with God."
Luke 18:27 But He said, "The
things impossible with men are possible with God."
Acts 14:8 And at Lystra there was
sitting a certain man, without strength in his feet, lame from his
mother's womb, who had never walked.
Romans 8:3
For what the Law could not do (adunatos), weak as it was through the
flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as
an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh (Comment: The
truth in Romans parallels that in Hebrews 10, Romans dealing with the Law
per se and Hebrews addressing the Levitical sacrificial system. Neither
source had the inherent ability to make man right before the Holy God and
both point ultimately to the Son, the perfect Sacrifice and the fulfillment
of the Law!)
Romans 15:1
Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without
strength and not just please ourselves.
Hebrews 6:4
(ESV) For it is impossible to restore again to repentance
those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and
have shared in the Holy Spirit, (Note: the NASB places "impossible" in
Hebrews 6:6)
(Note also that commentators and some translators take adunatos to
mean "difficult" but clearly from the other
NT uses and specifically the uses in Hebrews this is inappropriate and leads
to a thoroughly incorrect interpretation of this stern warning passage.)
Hebrews 6:18
in order that by two
unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may
have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the
hope set before us.
Hebrews 10:4
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away
sins.
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it
is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe
that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
Take away (851)
(aphaireo from apó = from + hairéo = to take, seize,
grasp, make a choice of one or more possible alternatives) means to put or
take something away from its normal location, to put out of the way
or to remove.
Luke 1:25 uses
aphaireo to refer to taking away of one's reproach. (cf Genesis 30:23)
All three synoptic
gospels record the literal use in describing Peter's removing of an ear away
from the slave's head!
Animal blood cannot
take away sins. Here in Hebrews the use of the
present tense
points to a continual action and
thus emphasizes what is always true.
Only God can take
away sins which He will do for Israel in the endtimes (see note
Romans 11:27)
Aphaireo is
used 132 times in the
Septuagint (LXX)
(Gen. 21:25; 30:23; 31:9, 16, 31 (Jacob fearing that Laban would take
away his daughters); 40:19 (Joseph's prophecy of Pharaoh taking away
the head of the baker); 48:17; Exod. 5:8, 11; 13:12; 29:27; 33:5, 23
("Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but
My face shall not be seen."); 34:7 (God "Who forgives [takes away]
iniquity"), 34:9 ("Thou pardon our iniquity and our sin"); 35:24; Lev. 1:16;
2:9; 4:10; 6:10, 15; 8:29; 9:21; 10:17; 22:15; Num. 11:17; 14:18; 15:19f;
18:19, 26, 28ff, 32; 21:7; 31:28, 52; 36:3f; Deut. 4:2; 12:32; Jos. 5:9; 1
Sam. 5:4; 7:14; 17:36, 39, 46, 51; 21:6; 24:4f, 11; 30:18; 2 Sam. 4:7; 16:9;
20:22; 1 Ki. 15:12; 20:41; 2 Ki. 6:32; 1 Chr. 11:23; 19:4; Est. 4:4, 17;
8:2f; Job 1:21; 9:21; 19:9; 22:6; 24:7, 10; 36:7; 38:15; Ps. 76:12; Prov.
1:19; 4:16; 11:30; 13:18; 14:35; 22:9; 26:7; 27:13; 30:7; Eccl. 3:14; Isa.
1:16, 25; 3:1, 18; 4:1; 5:5, 8; 6:7; 7:17, 20; 8:8; 9:4, 14; 10:13, 27;
11:13; 14:25; 16:2; 18:5; 20:2; 22:17, 19, 25; 25:8; 27:9; 28:18; 30:11;
38:15; 40:27; 53:10; 58:9; Jer. 6:2; 11:15; 26:2; Ezek. 21:26; 23:25; 26:16;
36:26; 45:9; 48:14; Dan. 4:1, 31; 5:20; 9:25; Hos. 2:9; Mic. 2:8; Zech. 3:4;
10:11). Here is a representative use of aphaireo in the
LXX...
Genesis 30:23 So she (Jacob's wife Rachel was
remembered by God and she) conceived and bore a son and said, "God has
taken away (aphaireo) my reproach."
Leviticus 10:17 "Why did you not
eat the sin offering at the holy place? For it is most holy, and He gave it
to you to bear away (aphaireo) the guilt of the congregation, to make
atonement for them before the LORD.
1 Samuel 17:51 Then David ran and
stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath
and killed him, and cut off (aphaireo) his head with it. When the
Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
Isaiah 6:7 And he touched my mouth
with it and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is
taken away (aphaireo), and your sin is forgiven."
Zechariah 3:4 And he spoke and
said to those who were standing before him saying, "Remove (aphaireo)
the filthy garments from him." Again he said to him, "See, I have taken your
iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes."
Aphaireo is
used 10 times in the NT...
Matthew 26:51
And behold, one of those who were with Jesus reached and drew out his sword,
and struck the slave of the high priest, and cut off (took away) his
ear.
Mark 14:47 But
a certain one of those who stood by drew his sword, and struck the slave of
the high priest, and cut off (took away) his ear.
Luke 1:25 "This
is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor
upon me, to take away my disgrace among men."
Luke 10:42 but
only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the
good part, which shall not be taken away from her."
Luke 16:3 "And
the steward said to himself, 'What shall I do, since my master is taking
the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am
ashamed to beg.
Luke 22:50 And
a certain one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off
(took away) his right ear. ( uses it
Romans 11:27
"And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins."
(Comment: He is referring of course to the New Covenant in His blood,
the covenant even prophesied about in the OT in Jeremiah 31:31-33. This
verse speaks of Israel's future forgiveness which was prophesied by Isaiah
27:9 "Therefore through this Jacob's iniquity will be forgiven" [LXX
= aphaireo = taken away]...". When the Redeemer returns to Zion to triumph
over the Antichrist and his cohorts at the end of the
Great Tribulation,
when He then sets up His
Millennial Kingdom)
1 Sam. 17:51; Is. 9:14; 18:5
Hebrews 10:4
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away
sins.
Revelation 22:19
and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of
this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and
from the holy city, which are written in this book. (Comment: This is
a serious warning - sow a take away and reap the most horrible of all take
away's - eternal destruction! The reader would be advised to consult Tony
Garland's excellent comments on this verse in
Revelation 22:19) (The
LXX
uses aphaireo in a similar way, Moses recording "You shall not add to
the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you
may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you."
Deuteronomy 4:2)
The Levitical
system was not designed by God to remove or forgive sins. These external,
visible sacrifices
were always meant to be a reflection of the heart change of the one offering
the sacrifice, even as external circumcision
was to picture internal circumcision, of the heart, by the Spirit and not the
letter (see notes
Romans 2:28;
2:29).
Levitical sacrifices foreshadowed the coming of the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God, the Messiah (Gal
3:24) in that it made the people expectant (see note
1 Peter 1:10).
Paul explains...
Therefore the Law has become our tutor to
lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. (Galatians 3:24)
Blood sacrifices necessitated a death
and thus revealed
God's utter hatred of and the the seriousness of sin. These
sacrifices also spoke of the reality
of God’s holiness and righteousness by indicating that sin had to be
covered with the element that conveyed "life" (the life is in the blood). Finally,
the blood sacrifices pointed to the necessity of full and complete forgiveness
so that God could have desired fellowship with His people.
Under the Old Covenant, the priests were busy all day, from dawn to dusk,
slaughtering and sacrificing animals. It is estimated that at Passover as many
as 300,000 lambs would be slain within a week. The slaughter would be so
massive that blood would run out of the Temple ground through specially
prepared channels into the Brook Kidron, which seemed to be running red with
blood.
But no matter how many sacrifices were made, or how often, they were
always ineffective for they could not bring access to God, could not remove sin
and were only external.
The essential
defects in the animal sacrifices were that they were not of the same nature with
those who sinned, were not of sufficient value to make
satisfaction for the affronts done to God and as mere beasts, the victims could not consent to put
themselves in the sinner's place. The atoning sacrifice must be by One
capable of and willing to consent to substitute Himself in the sinner's
stead! Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a Friend!
Ray Stedman
observes that...
These animal deaths were unwilling, even
unconscious, sacrifices of a lower and quite different nature and therefore
inadequate substitutes for humans made in the image of God. It is
impossible, says the author, for the blood of bulls and goats to take away
sins. Isaiah had quoted God long before saying, “I have no pleasure in the
blood of bulls and lambs and goats” (Isa 1:11). Nevertheless, despite this
limitation, through the deaths of many animals, one unchanging message was
being pounded out. Every sacrifice declared it and every offering told the
same story. It was burned in blood and smoke into every listening heart. The
essential point for a God-approved dealing with sin in one’s life was that a
life be laid down. Every dying animal meant a life brought to an end. Sin
was serious; it forfeited life. Unless the sin could actually be removed,
the sinner must die. To save the sinner from such a fate, an equal and
willing substitute must be found. Such a substitute the author now finds
described in the words of Psalm 40. (Hebrews
10:1-39 Let Us Go On!)
><> ><> ><>
From Our Daily
Bread - Sacrifice
In the agony of Psalm 51, David seems to
contradict himself. He exclaims, “You do not desire sacrifice, or else I
would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering” (v.16). Then, two
verses later, he says, “You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of
righteousness, with burnt offering” (v.19). Does God want our sacrifices or
not?
Sacrifices resemble the flowers a husband gives to his wife after a heated
argument. The wife doesn’t need the flowers. They are valuable to her only
if they accurately represent her husband’s feelings. If she thinks they are
merely a ritual and do not symbolize his regret, the flowers make the divide
between them worse.
God didn’t need the animals offered to Him in sacrifice. Hebrews says, “It
is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins”
(10:4). These sacrifices pointed to the once-for-all payment Jesus would
make with His own blood when He died for our sins.
What mattered was the attitude of those making the sacrifices. If the
offerings were without repentance, the ritual was a mockery. That’s why
David wrote, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a
contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). —Haddon W.
Robinson (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
For Further Study
Learn more about David’s sin and his return to God.
Read
David & Manasseh: Overcoming Failure
Repentance is sorrow for the deed, not
for getting caught
