Animal Sacrifices in the Bible?

Jeremiah 7:22-23
22"For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.
23"But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.'

Psalm 40:6
6Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired;
My ears You have opened;
Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required.

Psalm 51:15-17
15 O Lord, open my lips,
That my mouth may declare Your praise.
16 For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it;
You are not pleased with burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

Hebrews 10:8
8After saying above, "SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, NOR HAVE YOU TAKEN PLEASURE in them" (which are offered according to the Law),


According to the Bible, in multiple places, God never desired animal sacrifices and burnt offerings? So why did they do this? Why is it even a part of the Law?

Was it, perhaps, purely for the benefit of the priest’s stomach? Hmmm… It certainly would be a great little way to get the choicest most delicious meat in the land for you and your family, in perpetuity, without ever having to pay for it or raise it yourself.

Hmmm… Excuse me just a second…It is time for lunch… Munch, Munch…Chew, Chew…

What a great little racket…Chew, Chew! Provide me with your finest food or burn in hell forever! Something has to burn one way or the other! Step right up folks… Munch, Munch… who will it be? Your sorry, guilty, self, in hell, for all eternity, or your innocent animal right now? Perhaps this is where they got the idea for the television show, “Fear Factor”! God will love you… Pardon me once again… Chew, Chew… Gulp… Sorry… only if you cook me some dinner! Does this seem like cruel bondage to anyone else?


There is another curios little passage regarding this topic in the Book of Acts, in the Bible.

Acts 21:26
26Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying himself along with them, went into the temple giving notice of the completion of the days of purification, until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them.

Now what exactly might Paul be up to here, being a Christian? Why did he need any sacrifice offered for his sin according to the Law? Was not the sacrifice of Jesus sufficient for Paul? And even according to the scriptures quoted above clearly God never even wanted sacrifices, so again why is Paul subjecting himself to this practice himself? Anybody have a good answer?

It just blows my mind (what’s left of it) that they never seem to teach these simple truths in Sunday school anymore! What has become of the faith? Why are they hiding the truth from their own people?

What do you all think?

 

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Considering sacrifices are usually to the "enemy" for the benefit of said group, this itself should immediately raise a red flag! Why would an all-knowing, all powerful CREATOR need a sacrifice??? Maybe christians are worshipping the wolf in sheep's clothing. Excuse me, the jerk who killed the real god and is pretending to be it. But then, either way I'm sure christians deep down know that. They worship the one who lays down their life for them, how sweet and profound. They are such angels and above it all, I'm sure the sacrificee appreciates their sincere devotion!! I wonder if straws were drawn or did they just pick on the unselfish and innocent? Oh yes, they did. His name was Jesus Christ, symbolizing virtue, innocence, compassion, and without sin or blemish. Great contrived story though, he wanted to save all the assholes and worthless morons and GOD let him, hmm??? How convenient. Are christians good or actually EVIL??? The real truth is sometimes buried under layers of bullsh*t! hehehe

 

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They did this because in the bible, in multiple places, god did demand animal sacrifices and burnt offerings.

The people that existed before acts/hebrews/psalms etc wouldn't have known that god was going to change his mind, would they? No sir, they would have had to have gone along with his earlier demands - which included animal sacrifice.

It begins with Noah when he sacrifices animals to god. It was only due to the nice 'aroma' of the burning meat that god decides never to flood the earth again, (in fact it actually begins with Cain and Abel - Abel's dead animal offering pleases god but Cains fruit offering displeases god.. He's obviously not into his 5 a day). It continues in leviticus where god tells Moses and his people to offer burnt food to him. Bizarrely enough it's not only meat, but cereal, wine, bread etc. He goes on to state that; "This is a perpetual law for all your descendants wherever you live".

From a biblical perspective, god has always needed something to be sacrificed to him, including himself - which is seen as the final sacrifice. Until he was prepared to sacrifice himself to himself animals were required.

There was no "hell" or threat of eternal burning in the OT. When god got pissed off he just destroyed his people on the spot. They got instantly whacked for daring to ask for some food, plagued, drowned yada yada yada.

It would be more likely to state that by the time of the NT people had realised how much of a jerkoff their god was. They couldn't now afford to go round chopping up a gazillion goats for the sake of a sky being, nope. It's like everything god ever says - eventually it gets ignored. Circumcision, working on the sabbath etc etc.. Nobody gives a shit about gods laws. The more man moves forwards, the more god vanishes into the void.

 

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God apparently sacrifices Christ. Does this make Christ nothing more than a burnt offering or dead animal?

 

Dead animal, yes... but I don't think they cooked it.

 

Metaphorically speaking, of course.

 

How can God enjoy smelling the burning flesh of an animal when He has no physical nose?

 

Why would the killing of an innocent animal turn away God's wrath?

Why would the killing of an innocent Son turn away God's wrath?

Why must the innocent die for the guilty in God's economy?

How is this "justice"?

How is this even mercy?

 

Yes, this is just one more among many Bible contradictions!

Thank you for your additional comments!

 

You said it, its not god its people. Just as when a person says "you can't judge me, only god can" in translation really means "I=god" and actually communicating dishonestly that they don't think your opinions, rights, or life is of value and should be subject even to exploitation for their benefit if you are not like them or cowtow to their own weaknesses, just self-centeredness. It's so easy to see through people and bs IF you are honest with yourself or you don't automatically employ such tactics. The only reason it propagates is because their are so man people who are dishonest and support eachother. Where it becomes dangerous is when "we=god".

Take another look at the above and you'll see that is the way base people operate, even "criminals" operate. Then take a look at the world minus the window dressing. The ones with real integrity are rare. Christians are the majority pretending to be something they are not. They'll be nice as long as someone hidden takes the heat, as long as someone hidden satiated their anger, as long as someone hidden pays for their own sins, as long as someone hidden has taken up the slack for their own moral weakness or unwillingness to take FULL responsiblity. They refuse to take a good, hard look at themselves. The ones they sacrifice are the ones who are actually 'virtuous' and they turn around and wear the label themselves after they sucked the life out of their victim. Cheaters

 

Perhaps some of the following are stupid questions but...

What are the pre-Biblical origins of this practice of appeasing God through animal sacrifice? How did this practice begin and how far back does it go before the Bible? Did any of the civilizations that predate the nation of Israel practice animal sacrifice? Are there any known civilizations or documents that predate all of the Biblical events, or is the Bible the oldest written document we have?

Can anyone help me out with some answers? I am really interested in learning more!

Thank You!

 

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M*W: I'll take a stab at it. When ancients humans looked into the night sky and saw certain animals outlined by the stars. They may have believed that these animals they saw in the heavens were good and offered to their sky god, so they wanted to replicate these sacrifices on Earth by offering up Earthly animals to their sky gods to bring rain to their crops and such.

 

The legends about the good which could come from the Creator God through convenant sacrifice came initially from Adam and Eve, and then through Noah and his family.

The Creator God sacrificed an animal so that Adam and Eve could be covered, just as He would later sacrifice his Son, the Lamb of God, the "last Adam."

Noah and his family brought the knowledge through the Deluge, to be seen in the animal sacrifices which occur in various tribes from disparate parts of the world.

 

One thing that dumbfounds me is why Noah saved blood sucking insect from the flood? I mean we still have the royal family.

No, but seriously there are countless billion species on this planet. How did they come about from about one hundred species that Noah saved from this flood 2000 years go?

 

The Deluge was circa 2400 B.C.

Noah gathered syngameons of animals, which usually falls at the genus level, and sometimes at the family level, so only about 20,000 syngameons of animals need have been on the Ark.

Many insects and plants survived in the Floodwater and sediments, so the logistics for Noah's Ark are not a problem.

 

Well that makes all the difference.

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No! The animals being in reproductive pairs makes no difference!
Also you cant fit 20,000 species on an ark, but OK. More importantly, even 20,000 species cant possibly subdivide into (n)billion in 4400 years.

What insects(skin breathing arthropods) survived in slurry?

 

Don't forget they ATE the animal!
It was a typical Aussie BBQ.

 

Verse 23 answers the question.
23"But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.'

Notice the "but." Did God ask for burnt offerings? Yes. He asked for a lot of things but what was the point? God is addressing the heart. Sacrifice was just a representation of the future Messiah known as Christ. It was a symbol. It was a reminder. God's purpose was not for them to do that and that it, it started with the heart and intent. Actually Noah is not the first. What about Cain an Abel. Abel brought the best while Cain brought some. The point of the story was their view on God. Abel saw God as King and He deserved the best while Cain saw himself greater than God. Which one was God pleased with? These are not contradictions just showing the point of sacrifice and what God wants. The assumtion about the priests eating? They were provided with food. First choice the priests would have had no possible way of eating all the food, plus if that is a reason for offerings then that falls apart because neither Abel, Noah, Isaac, Abraham, Adam nor a bunch of others were priests so obviously it had other motives. To answer about Paul I will get back to you on that because right now I have no answer, however that takes nothing away from the Christ or the cross.

Thank you,
His son,
><>Warrior61<><

 

What scripture did you get this from?

 

Innocent Son = Perfect offering. Notice the sacrifices required are not to have any blemish. The best. If Jesus was sinful it He would not have been a perfect offering. A sacrifice animal did nothing but carry out a fullfilment of obedience and a reminder. An animal was never good enough. The innocent must die for the guilty because the guilty are not worthy enough, only the innocent. Only Jesus could bear the weight of the cross. How is this justice? The punishment was carried out but instead on us it was passed on to Jesus. He took our punishment. Mercy? For who. Jesus or sinners?