The Book of Jonah shoots down all your arguments about sacrifice and atonement, especially with reference to Gentiles. When Jonah preached, the people repented, and God forgave them—no sacrifice, no blood offering.

Did you know that traditional Judaism, based on the Torah, teaches that the Temple sacrifices made atonement for the Gentile world? This was part of Israel’s call as a priestly nation, and it was Israel’s Temple offerings that helped make Gentile repentance acceptable to God.

When God brought our people out of Egypt, he said to them, “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod. 19:4–6).

Israel was called to be a priestly nation, and part of that calling included making intercession and atonement for the nations of the world. (Remember, this was an integral part of the priestly calling, therefore, as a priestly nation, Israel would make intercession and atonement for the world.) According to this concept, when a Gentile nation repented and turned to God, its repentance would be accepted in conjunction with the sacrifices and prayers offered up by the people of Israel. That’s why the prophet Jonah called on the Ninevites to repent of their sins. Offering up sacrifices was Israel’s job as a priestly nation.

“Who says so?” you ask.

Actually, the Talmudic rabbis say so. In b. Sukkah 55b (see also Pesikta deRav Kahana, Buber edition, 193b–194a) we read that the seventy bulls that were offered every year during the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot; see Num. 29:12–34) “were for the seventy nations,” which Rashi explains to mean, “to make atonement for them, so that rain will fall throughout the world.”²⁵⁹ In this context—and in light of the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 C.E.—the Talmud records the words of Rabbi Yohannan: “Woe to the nations who destroyed without knowing what they were destroying. For when the Temple was standing, the altar made atonement for them. But now, who will make atonement for them?” Such a strong statement bears repeating: “When the Temple was standing, the altar made atonement for them.” Blood sacrifices were indispensable. (See above, 3.10, for an in-depth discussion of this.)

Now, I recognize that God can have mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and compassion on whom he wants to have compassion (see Exod. 33:19), but he has ordained prayer, atonement rites, repentance, and faith as the means by which his people participate with him in procuring forgiveness and mercy. Thus, he singled out one particular people, the nation of Israel, and called them to conduct the Temple services, celebrating the holy days and offering sacrifices for their own sins and the sins of the world. Ultimately, these sacrifices pointed to the once-and-for-all sacrifice of Yeshua for the sins of the world.²⁶⁰

The bottom line is this: All of us have sinned, Jew and Gentile alike, and all of us need a way to come into right standing with God. We will see in the next objection that it was the Messiah who opened the door for all peoples to come into God’s presence by shedding his blood on our behalf, completely fulfilling what the sacrificial system could only point to in part.

²⁵⁹ According to ancient Jewish tradition, and based on the so-called Table of Nations in Genesis 10, there were a total of seventy (Gentile) nations in the world. See, e.g., Nahum Sarna, Genesis, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 67–70. Note that the sacrifices were offered up for seven days, beginning with thirteen on the first day, then twelve, then eleven, etc., until the last seven were offered on the seventh day. Then, on the eighth and final day of Sukkot, one sacrifice was offered. According to George Foote Moore in his classic work Judaism: In the First Centuries of the Christian Era: The Age of the Tannaim (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1997), 2:43, n. 2, “These burnt offerings were made, according to an often repeated explanation, in behalf of the seventy heathen nations; the one on the eighth day for the unique people of Israel. When the heathen destroyed the temple, they destroyed the atonement that was made for them.”

²⁶⁰ Through this sacrifice, at one and the same time, God could be just (by exacting the punishment of the Messiah’s death for those sins) and the justifier of those who believe in Yeshua (by pronouncing righteous all who put their trust in the Messiah); see Romans 3:19–31 (I have excerpted here the end of Rom. 3:26). God in his justice demanded payment for sins, but in his mercy he sent the Messiah to make that payment—with his own life!—on our behalf. So through Yeshua, God is both just and merciful.

Brown, M. L. (2000). Answering Jewish objections to Jesus, Volume 2: Theological objections (152). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.

The Book of Jonah shoots down all your arguments about sacrifice and atonement, especially with reference to Gentiles. When Jonah preached, the people repented, and God forgave them—no sacrifice, no blood offering.