Why did God insist upon animal sacrifices? I have never been clear?

Question

on that or why it was appropriate. Please instruct!

yes, in fact he wanted lambs sacrificed to appease his anger and sometimes if a person had sinned, they had to build an altar and sacrifice something in order to be forgiven

even as child i thought this was strange and i never aksed why

Answer 1

They were a nomadic ancient culture, who did what nomadic cultures did in those days.

Questions like these ones are why many people feel that christianity is not legitimate nor relevant. I'm in that number.

Keep asking questions. If the god of the bible is REAL, he can withstand a basic examination.

Answer 2

Someone answered you saying man made that up well no God did. The first sacrifice we have was Adam and Eve. When they sinned God had to sacrifice a animal to cover there sins. Animal sacrifice was the only purest thing that could have been a blood sacrifice. Humans couldnt have been cause we wasn't even close to perfect. Thats why there was certain animals that could be used to sacrifice for the sins of the people.

Answer 3

God tells us at Isaiah 1:11 b that: "I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats." So why did He tell the Jews to initiate a rather complex sacrificial system?

He did this to teach them several principles:

1) That sin must be atoned (covered) with blood;
2) That death is the price for sin;
3) That it is possible to transfer sin from a human being to the animal about to be sacrificed by the "laying on of hands," which was part of the ceremonial requirements prior to sacrifice.

Each and every one of these lessons prepared the hearts of the Jews to receive the ultimate sacrifice: Jesus Christ. Had they not understood all these things beforehand, they wouldn't have understood the need for Jesus to die.

Peace.

Answer 4

Grace(not Law) unto you, and peace(not division),
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The will of God (repeated in Mt as a go figure) is:
"I will have mercy(grace), and not sacrifice(law)"
Ps 40:6; 51:16; Hos 6:6; Mt 9:13; 12:7; Heb 10
And the "not" part is: not then, not now, not ever.
http://www.godshew.org/ShewBread5.htm#willx2
God never desired sacrifce for sin(of law & by law);
Nor ever took any pleasure in watching such law law.

Perhaps a re-read of the flood story may help you:
http://www.godshew.org/ShewBread8.htm#Noah

Receiving the promise comes "after" doing the will of God.
These all, listed in Hebrews 11: received NOT the promise.
Heb 11 concludes God provided some better thing for us.

The GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ with you all. Amen.

Answer 5

I suspect many people wonder about this—but God never does anything by accident, and He had a purpose in giving those sacrifices to His people in the Old Testament.

His purpose was to teach them some important truths—truths they needed to understand so they could serve Him. They also needed to know those truths so that they would be prepared for the time when God would send His Son into the world. The Bible says the Old Testament Law was like a teacher or schoolmaster, "put in charge to lead us to Christ" (Galatians 3:24).

What was God teaching them through those sacrifices? For one thing, He was teaching them the seriousness of sin. Sin isn't insignificant or easily excused; blood must be shed to atone for it. God also was teaching them that He is holy and pure, and sin must be judged. But God was also teaching them about His grace and mercy, because instead of being put to death for their own sins, He was willing to accept a substitute.

But those sacrifices are no longer needed, because by His death on the cross Jesus made the final sacrifice for sin! The Bible says, "But now he has appeared once for all... to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Hebrews 9:26). Are you trusting Him for your salvation?

Answer 6

Banish the word appease. It began in the Garden of Eden by God Himself. Killing a creature that He had created and making it a covering for Adam and Eve. The innocent dying for the guilty and mildly altered to be a part of temple worship which God did Himself. God also used it as a way of showing it as a promise made and the promise resulted in the cross at calvary. So you see Jesus became the covering for us so when the Father looks at us He sees His Son. That said, is the bible in a nutshell.

The jews were looking for the victorious messiah and didn't see Jesus Christ as that messiah, but He is coming back again to fulfill those promises. Thank you for asking.

Answer 7

Well, the wages of sin is death. God gave the command of Adam and Eve to not eat of the fruit from the tree of good and evil. They did, sin was introduced. Since the wages of sin is death, death has to be payed to absolve sin. God instructed animal sacrafices not because the blood of an animal can cleanse us of sins (animals don't have the know abouts to sin) but He was showing us what He planned on doing. Take for example why He asked Abraham to sacrafice Isaac, it was not to prove to God that Isaac was not first in Abraham's life, but to show what He was goign to do. Many many years later Christ came down from heaven to be born of a virgin, fully God and fully man. Jesus' blood shed/death on the cross was enough to cover all of man kind's sins. Those past, present and future. The cross was God's way to show His justice as well as His mercy.

Answer 8

When sin first occurred, blood was used to cover it. I think the yearly sacrifice was for this and some of these times were festivals. Since Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice, others haven't been necessary.
A Jewish person should be able to tell you about the sacrifices and festivals.

Answer 9

When God required animal sacrifice, He was using it as a symbol of our repentance for the sins we commit. God no longer requires this because Jesus became our ultimate sacrifice.
In order for man to have communion with God, our sins had to be purged. We are not holy or worthy on our own.
Check out the website below. They can answer this completely and thoroughly.

Answer 10

It was important to realize that without the shedding of blood ,there could be no remission of sin.The animal was to foreshadow what the Messiah was going to do .So it was like writing a check.Later the Messiah Jesus came and was the hard money to cover that check.Notice that after Jesus died and rose ,it was about 40 years before there would be no more Jewish sacrifices of animals any more,and hasn't been since in 2000 years.Some folks just don't get it.How the Jewish people can't see God's hand in that is beyond me.

Answer 11

God instructed upon animal sacrifices in the past was merely symbolic of what he was planning for mankind and that is to send his son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind. Now, after the death of Jesus Christ, there is no need for animal sacrifice. The sacrifice by Jesus is sufficient and finally and that is why Jesus declared "It is finished".