Animal Sacrifice in the Bible
Animal Sacrifices in the Bible.
Below is the Message Audio followed by Typed Notes.
Only select animals were sacrificed in the Old Testament. They had to be in the list of Clean Animals as God instructed Moses. Leviticus 1:3-16. It included sheep, goat, bull, dove or pigeon.
The first animal sacrifice was done by God after Eve and Adam disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden fruit. He did this in order to cover their nakedness. Genesis 3:21“Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.”
Next recorded sacrifice was performed by Noah.
After the Genesis Flood, Noah made an offering for humanity of “clean animals” seeking God’s Forgiveness.
Genesis 8:20-22 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
There are five main types of sacrifices, or offerings, in the Old Testament. The burnt offering (Leviticus 1; 6:8–13; 8:18-21; 16:24), the grain offering (Leviticus 2; 6:14–23), the peace offering (Leviticus 3; 7:11–34), the sin offering (Leviticus 4; 5:1–13; 6:24–30; 8:14–17; 16:3–22), and the trespass offering (Leviticus 5:14–19; 6:1–7; 7:1–6). Each of these sacrifices involved certain elements, either animal or fruit of the field, and had a specific purpose. Most were split into two or three portions—God’s portion, the portion for the Levites or priests, and, if there was a third, a portion kept by the person offering the sacrifice. The sacrifices can be broadly categorized as either voluntary or mandatory offerings.
The sacrifices can be broadly categorized as either voluntary or mandatory offerings.
voluntary offerings: There were three voluntary offerings.
The first was the burnt offering, a voluntary act of worship to express devotion or commitment to God. It was also used as an atonement for unintentional sin.
The second voluntary offering was the grain offering, in which the fruit of the field was offered in the form of a cake or baked bread made of grain, fine flour, and oil and salt.
The third voluntary offering was the peace offering, which consisted of any unblemished animal from the worshiper’s herd, and/or various grains or breads. This was a sacrifice of thanksgiving and fellowship followed by a shared meal.
Mandatory Sacrifices:
The first was the sin offering. The purpose of the sin offering was to atone for sin and cleanse from defilement.
The other mandatory sacrifice was the trespass offering, and this sacrifice was exclusively a ram. The trespass offering was given as atonement for unintentional sins that required reimbursement to an offended party, and also as a cleansing from defiling sins or physical maladies. Again, the fat portions, kidneys, and liver were offering to God, and the remainder of the ram had to be eaten inside the court of the tabernacle.
Old Testament Sacrifices were required by God to atone for sin.
In the Old Testament, idol worship and sacrifices to false gods were strictly forbidden. The first two commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai explicitly prohibit the worship of other gods and the making of idols-Exodus 20:3-4: “You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath.…”
The prophets frequently condemned Israel for engaging in idol worship and sacrifices. For instance, Jeremiah 7:18 highlights the idolatrous practices of the people "The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger."
The Northern Kingdom of Israel abandoned God, had ungodly kings who led in Idol Worship and sacrifice to idols including human sacrifice to Idols. They were taken into captivity by the Assyrian Empire in 722 B.C. and God never restored them to the land He had promised their Father Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3). The Southern Kingdom of Judah was later taken into captivity by the Babylonian Empire in 593 B.C. but God restored their remnant to the Land of Promise because many were Godly men. The restoration was necessary to prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ to redeem sinful humanity, and fulfill God’s promise to Abraham that “in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” Genesis 12:1.
Below is the link to the Typed Notes pdf