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Whether you just finished setting up the conversation to share the gospel or you're ready to jump right in, Old Testament sacrifice stories are a way to bring up Jesus' substitutionary atonement. Use the acronym AIM Yahoo to remember the various sacrifice stories.
INTRO
You can create your own way to start talking about the sacrifice stories. You could ask them about Eid al Adha - the festival of sacrifice a couple of months after Ramadan. Or if you're in a grocery store with a butcher, reference the animal carcasses. If you're having trouble starting to talk about the sacrifice stories, check out SHREKS.
ADAM & HAWA (EVE)
Remember how God put Adam and Hawa in paradise and told them to eat fruit from any tree except one? But they disobeyed and ate from the forbidden tree anyway!
For disobeying - just this one command - God sent them out of paradise.
Adam and Hawa's eyes were opened and they realized they were naked. They tried to cover their own shame with leaves, but those weren't enough.
But God knew their shame and had mercy on them. He took the skin of an innocent animal to cover their shame. They tried to cover their own shame, but they could not. God did it for them. But it was at the expense of an innocent animal.
IBRAHIM (ABRAHAM)
Remember when Ibrahim was to sacrifice his son? [For now, leave the Isaac vs Ishmael debate for later]. Did Ibrahim sacrifice his son? No.
But there was a sacrifice that day! The Qur'an* calls it a "great sacrifice." Ibrahim sacrificed an innocent animal instead of sacrificing his child!
MUSA (MOSES)
Remember prophet Musa and how the people he was leading did many
bad, shameful things? In the Taurat**, God told Musa to take an innocent animal and have it killed so that the sins of the people would be forgiven. Again, instead of the people being judged for their sin, an innocent animal died instead.
YAHYA
Remember prophet Yahya? One day, he called Jesus a very unusual name. He said that Jesus is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world".
Why would Yahya call him this? It is because it was always God’s plan for Jesus to die on the cross for our shame and sin.
Just as the innocent animal died to cover Adam and Hawa’s sin, just like the innocent animal died so Ibrahim’s son would not have to, just like the innocent animal died instead of the people Musa was leading, so too Jesus died instead of us.
We were the ones who have sinned, but he never has. This was God’s plan all along. Yes, I do good things, but not for forgiveness. It’s because I love Him. He has forgiven me because Jesus gave His life for my sin and I'm trusting in His plan.
OUTRO: CALL TO ACTION
They may vehemently disagree. They might be intrigued. (Or both!) Give some next steps. Consider inviting them to a bible study.
What do you think about what this? Some of what I shared was in the Qur’an but other parts from the Taurat, Zabur and the Injil. Have you ever studied these books from God?
* Surah As-Saffat (37):103-107 (Yusuf Ali translation) reads:
So when they had both submitted their wills (to Allah), and he had laid him prostrate on his forehead (for sacrifice), We called out to him "O Abraham! "Thou hast already fulfilled the vision!" - thus indeed do We reward those who do right. For this was obviously a trial - And We ransomed him with a momentous sacrifice.
** See Leviticus 4. Some use the Passover story of Exodus 12, but it is a little long