If you were a divine creator of everything, what would want people to kill lambs in your name for?

Question

This is one of the things I find really strange in the bible. The God who created everything and is "LOVE" (yeah.....right), wants all these poor dudes in ancient times to grab, not just any lamb, but their best lamb, and kill it in his name, and waste it by burning it on a altar.

What's God going to gain out of that?

Is it insecurity and the need for attention?

Answer 1

Apparently God likes the smell of burning flesh.

Answer 2

Most faiths throughout time have involved some kind of ritual sacrifice. The key word there is Sacrifice. It's the act of giving up something important to you to show the deity you think they are more important than your own well being, and that you trust them to provide for you. Giving up a prized animal was no small thing, we're talking about civilizations who were living on the edge already. They needed that food to survive, but they put their faith in their chosen deity, and trusted that he'd get them something else to eat. Also in most cultures, this was not a daily thing, it was only done at certain times of the year, or in a time of great need. It was a plea to the god to continue to help them, or to rescue them from some great plight such as crop failure. Usually they slit the throat, used the blood for divination or some other rites, then that was given to the god (placed on the shrine) with fruits and grains, and candles and wishes. The meat was roasted and eaten as part of the ritual feast. They knew the god cant eat the animal after all, so they did it for him/her. Human sacrifice was much rarer, and only in a select few cultures was the human eaten. An interesting not, usually the human victim was seen as exalted, and "Chosen" by the people, and the victim him/herself was usually completely willing to die for the glory of the god/dess.

Answer 3

The worst part of your question is the part that says "if you were the divine creator..."

We are not! We cannot be! We are imperfect in every way...he is perfect in every way. If something seems odd or strange to you that God does, then you know the problem is with you and not with God. Sin clouds our spiritual vision and understanding. We cannot compare our sense of compassion, mercy, justice etc. to God's!

Sin is the worst thing ever...it separates us from our eternal creator. In order to understand how horrible our sin is, it requires atonement that costs us something. If the ancient Jews could just say...oh...yeah...I'm real sorry about that...then what would the cost have been? No...it had to hurt, it had to be a true sacrifice. God loves the lamb but the lamb does not have a soul, nor was it created in the image of God. Our salvation is more important then anything else.

This is why Jesus died a horrible and painful death. There had to be a cost for the atonement of our sins. We have to understand how devastating sin is and how it keeps us from our divine, original purpose.

Answer 4

It's the concept of sacrifice. It was not really done for God but for man. It gives man tangible evidence that God has been appeased and man can then feel right about being in God's favor. The Law and the priests did the same thing. Jesus being the ultimate sacrifice puts an end to the practice..

Answer 5

Themselves.

If I were a divine creator, I'd have them just enjoy a great lambchop themselves. I wouldn't need them to kill things for me.

Yes, the barbarism in the OT is conveniently overlooked by religious people. Even the whole "Jesus dying for your sins" story is just a glorified scapegoat story which really doesn't make sense when you think about it. The idea that slaughtering Jesus will help things you did wrong is just as barbaric as slaughtering lambs to pay for your wrongdoings.

Answer 6

misty, ausblue and margherita answered this well.
And also, with the final sacrifice of Jesus -- God giving up His one and only Son who died for our sins on the cross, brought about the New Testament with the love , mercy and forgiveness that we are all given by God -- our debts were paid by his Son and sacrifice in the way of the Old Testament was no longer to be.
Now we sacrifice in other ways : giving up something so someone else may have it, putting others first , being selfless--instead of selfish.

Answer 7

I can't imagine a supreme being wanting to spark up a lamb.

Answer 8

One organic oxygen atom. whether the oxygen is polluted, poisonous or poisoned, it relatively is going to be the pollutant that kills you, no longer the oxygen. As for the tiny pea, you may choke on one, yet no longer choke to loss of existence. A tiny pea ought to no longer totally block your trachea to the element the place you suffocate...you will the two swallow it or cough it up. an identical could decide for any tiny particle of foodstuff (like a raisin or a doughnut crumb, for that be counted).

Answer 9

Firstly, what God values most is thanks.

Psalms 50:12 If I were hungry I would not tell you,
for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?
14 "Sacrifice thank offerings to God,
fulfill your vows to the Most High,
15 and call on me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you will honor me."

Secondly, God highly values productivity. Consider this imagery and it appears often:
Isaiah 5:1 I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.
2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.
3 "Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?

Answer 10

If you are the divine creator of everything you own the people and the lambs and can pretty much do whatever you want.

Live with it.

Peace and blessings,

Imam Salim

Answer 11

It gave them something to practice on so they'd do a better job of killing people when he commanded them to do that.

Ezekiel 9:6 "Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women . . . "

Deuteronomy 13:15 "Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city . . . "

Exodus 32:27 "And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour."