The Sacrament as a Replacement of Ancient Sacrifices

The Sacrament as a Replacement of Ancient Sacrifices

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I'm not entirely sure I wrote this. But I think I did.

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The sacrament is a temple ordinance but it is specifically an outward ordinance performed in the outer court of the temple, or in our day in the chapel of every ward in the stakes of Zion (which is precisely where the stakes that hold up the tabernacle are located). Before Christ it was performed just outside the door of the temple/tabernacle of the congregation on a brazen altar and today there is an altar specifically designed in every chapel where the priests bless and prepare the offering for those who come with a broken heart and contrite spirit to worship at that same alter.

Elder Oaks: "The sacrament is the ordinance that replaced the blood sacrifices and burnt offerings of the Mosaic law,"

M Russell Ballard: "After the Savior’s ultimate sacrifice, two adjustments were made in the practice of this law. First, the ordinance of the sacrament replaced the ordinance of sacrifice; and second, this change moved the focus of the sacrifice from a person’s animal to the person himself. In a sense, the sacrifice changed from the offering to the offerer. As we contemplate the replacing of animal sacrifice with the sacrament, we cannot help but notice a strong relationship between the two."

Elder Perry: "Thus, in the ancient law of sacrifice and in the sacrament, the Lord has helped us be certain that we do not forget His promises and the requirement that we follow Him and obey His will."

The meal offered within the temple is different, it is the same call to sup with God that Moses gave to the children of Israel when he asked them to ascend the mount of the Lord: "Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink." (Exodus 24:9-11)

This meal of "eat and drink" is more akin to the marriage feast that occurs after the covenant is solemnized or sealed upon those who attain God's presence. The sacrament however, just like the sacrifice before Christ, is in remembrance of the groom and the covenant he has made with the bride, that if she would wait and endure to the end he would come get her and take her to the feast and at last sit down with the Father to go no more out to sup with him eternally. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." (Rev 3:20), and we will see the face of the Lord.

D&C 84 describes the outward ordinances or those ordinances administered as part of the preparatory gospel by the Aaronic priesthood, because Israel would not go up and see the face of God and participate in the higher ordinances. "Therefore, he took Moses out of their midst, and the Holy Priesthood also; And the lesser priesthood continued, which priesthood holdeth the key of the ministering of angels and the preparatory gospel". It is that "lesser" priesthood that administers both the sacrifices in the tabernacle and the sacrament today.

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