Why did God want animal sacrifices?
I thought about this question a lot while I was reading Leviticus, Numbers, and several times when I was reading Genesis and Exodus. People have sacrificed animals for God many times in the bible but an explanation for why they were sacrificing animals has never been given. At first this request from God is very confusing to me. Why would God want someone to kill an animal as a sacrifice for him? These sacrifices were made in order to gain forgiveness from God for a person's sin or they could be given to God as peace offerings. I decided to ask this question for my blog when I read chapter seven of Numbers. Each tribe made gave sacrifices to God to dedicate the tabernacle. Animals of specific ages and sexes were given as peace and sin offerings. Stories of animal sacrifice are so important to be told in the Bible because they show the way people interacted with God. Sacrifices were how people attempted to please God. They were a very important part of the way people lived their lives.
My first thoughts on how to answer my question was to compare animal sacrifices to the sacrifice of his son Jesus. God sent his son to eventually shed his blood for the forgiveness of sins. For the sins that people made before God sent his son to them, people needed other ways to ask forgiveness from God. Of course these people could not make human sacrifices so they had to turn to shedding the blood of animals. To me, this answer makes the most sense of why God would want animals to be sacrificed for him. While I was researching this question, I found KeltonburgPreacher.com. This website also talked about the sacrifice of Jesus for people's sins. It went on to explain that people in the Old Testament needed to give God animal sacrifices because they had to know the meaning of shed blood. Bloodshed was the way God had them realize that because of their actions something had to die teaching them the cost of their sin. But I was still confused how the animals were chosen to become sacrifices. In my research, this question led me to the site The Sacred Page which was short but gave a very good explanation. God wanted his people to sacrifice these animals because they were the same animals that were worshiped by the Egyptians. This was God's way of keeping people away from worshiping other gods and to serve only Him. Researching this question also led me to find a website, livingtheway.org, that described the way that animals were sacrificed. This was a very important part of sacrificing because the people were meant to do this in a very caring way. The animals veins and arteries in the neck would be cut so that the animal would die as quickly as possible. This way the animal did not suffer while it died.
http://www.thesacredpage.com/2006/04/why-did-god-ask-for-animal-sacrifice.html
http://keltonburgpreacher.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/why-did-god-require-animals-to-be-sacrificed/
http://livingtheway.org/abraham2.html
My first thoughts on how to answer my question was to compare animal sacrifices to the sacrifice of his son Jesus. God sent his son to eventually shed his blood for the forgiveness of sins. For the sins that people made before God sent his son to them, people needed other ways to ask forgiveness from God. Of course these people could not make human sacrifices so they had to turn to shedding the blood of animals. To me, this answer makes the most sense of why God would want animals to be sacrificed for him. While I was researching this question, I found KeltonburgPreacher.com. This website also talked about the sacrifice of Jesus for people's sins. It went on to explain that people in the Old Testament needed to give God animal sacrifices because they had to know the meaning of shed blood. Bloodshed was the way God had them realize that because of their actions something had to die teaching them the cost of their sin. But I was still confused how the animals were chosen to become sacrifices. In my research, this question led me to the site The Sacred Page which was short but gave a very good explanation. God wanted his people to sacrifice these animals because they were the same animals that were worshiped by the Egyptians. This was God's way of keeping people away from worshiping other gods and to serve only Him. Researching this question also led me to find a website, livingtheway.org, that described the way that animals were sacrificed. This was a very important part of sacrificing because the people were meant to do this in a very caring way. The animals veins and arteries in the neck would be cut so that the animal would die as quickly as possible. This way the animal did not suffer while it died.
http://www.thesacredpage.com/2006/04/why-did-god-ask-for-animal-sacrifice.html
http://keltonburgpreacher.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/why-did-god-require-animals-to-be-sacrificed/
http://livingtheway.org/abraham2.html