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Introduction
If we read Genesis carefully, we can see that long before the law of Moses was given on Mount Sinai, and many centuries before the institution of the sacrificial system, the patriarchs had an understanding of how to worship God. They knew that blood sacrifices were needed to atone for sin, that certain animals were clean and others were unclean, and that God had a system of laws which needed to be obeyed.
Blood sacrifices
After the fall, the LORD made garments of skins for Adam and Eve and clothed them (3:21). Evidently God did not consider that the fig leaves were adequate to cover their nakedness. This is first recorded sacrifice of animals, a very visual demonstration that the shedding of the blood - the death of an innocent animal is necessary to cover sin and nakedness.
Abel’s sacrifice of a firstling from the flock was accepted (4:4), implying that he knew and understood that a blood sacrifice was required to worship the Lord, while Cain’s offering of fruit was rejected. The author of Hebrews later declares that, by faith Abel offered God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain’s (Heb 11:4).
After the birth of Seth, people began to invoke the name of the LORD (Yahweh) (4:26). This rather enigmatic statement may suggest the beginning of regular public worship of God.
Many of the patriarchs built altars and burnt sacrifices to God. Noah built an altar after the flood on which he offered burnt offerings of every clean animal and bird (8:20). Abraham who built an altar between Bethel and Ai, where he called on the name of the LORD (12:7, 13:4). He later built an altar at Hebron (13:18), and one on Mt. Moriah to sacrifice Isaac (22:9). Isaac also built an altar at Beersheba and called on the name of the LORD (26:25).
Clean and unclean animals
Before the flood, Noah took seven pairs of all clean animals on to the ark, and only one pair of unclean animals into the ark (7:2). After the flood, he sacrificed some of the clean animals and birds (8:20). Long before the Book of Leviticus was given, Noah knew which animals were clean and which were unclean.
The idea of law revealed by God
Again, long before God gave the law to Moses, the Lord appeared to Isaac and gave promises, because Abraham had obeyed God’s voice, and kept his commandments, statutes and laws (26:5). It is interesting that this is the same description of God’s law that is found in the Book of Deuteronomy (11:1), a passage which summarises the whole law of Moses.
These hints in the Book of Genesis suggest that the patriarchs had a greater revelation of God and understood more theology than we often think. However, these are only tantalising hints in the early chapters of Genesis. The purpose of these chapters was not to give a complete description of early faith in God, so we have to be very careful how we attempt to trace the development of faith and worship in Israel.
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