Feb 1: Leviticus 5 - 7
It is really difficult for us to understand all the implications of the various sacrifices that were offered. However it is obvious that God is really into the details. Sacrifices were common in the pagan world at this time, and I imagine the regulations related to the placement of blood on the altar and the requirement not to drink/eat the blood of animals was different from the typical sacrifices occurring in other parts of the world at that time.
There were so many different rules related to how things were slaughtered, who could do it, where it occurred, and what happened to the remains that I imagine it took a while for the priests to learn and remember it all. We don’t see any mistakes or repercussions early in this process, so I’m presuming God gave them a bit of time to learn. Or maybe the priests were able to make their own sacrifices for times they made inadvertent mistakes.
The one thing that keeps popping into my head as I read this is the limited number of priests (Aaron and his sons) and the vast number of people who might be making sacrifices. I imagine there were days when the priests were sick of meat!
I know we are no longer under these laws, but I often wonder if we have lost something by being able ask for forgiveness, maybe even flippantly, without experiencing the true guilt and sense of repentance one would have felt as they had to kill a perfect animal as a result of sin. I definitely wouldn’t want to go back to the days of sacrifices, but I also don’t want to minimize the impact of my failure to please God.
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