| THE REASON FOR SACRIFICE |
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| The sequence of the offerings - forgiveness of sins, then total dedication, then fellowship - shows that their goal was fellowship with God. To reach that goal, forgiveness of sin and complete dedication to God were necessary. Leviticus, however, does not explain this underlying philosophy: it reads more like an instruction manual on how to make sacrifices exactly the way God wanted. The exactness helped produce a proper attitude. You couldn't approach God carelessly. You had to be very careful to do just what he said, to obey him in every detail. Can an Animal Really Pay? The whole scene - with its concern for blood, priests, ritual - is strange to modern people. Just how can killing a goat make things right between God and people? Is the sacrifice of an animal really enough to "pay for" our mistakes? We may forget that throughout history, people have intuitively felt that sacrifice was needed to appease God. Many religions around the world still sacrifice today. For us these sacrifices seem outmoded primarily because one great sacrifice - that of God's own son - outdid them all. The animal sacrifices were not enough, ultimately, to pay for human sin. They prepared the way for a sacrifice that was. The cost of an animal was substantial, but the true cost, even for us, is infinitely greater. Yet we don't have to pay the cost. Jesus paid it all. Life Questions: Do you think of God as requiring sacrifice? How does the picture of God in Leviticus fit with your ideas? |
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