III. Other Old Testament Stories

Question: In the Old Testament, the Israelites made a lot of animal sacrifices. Why did you ask them to do this?

God’s answer:

Sacrificial Lamb

 

Meaning: Stop the sacrifice! It does not please Me.

"The multitude of your sacrifices-- what are they to me?" says the LORD. "I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
Isaiah 1:11

Although we do not offer “blood sacrifices” to God, we still have a tendency to attach some personal sacrifice with our prayer request to God, thinking that this is pleasing to God. Just like the Jews, we have misinterpreted what God is asking from us, which is: “for faithful love is what pleases me, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6)

Question: Did you or did you not command the Israelites to make sin offerings as what is outlined in Leviticus 4?

God’s answer:

Question: Did you ask them to make any kind of animal sacrifice other than what is stated in Leviticus 4?

God’s answer:

Meaning: The Passover lamb

Question: So, why did the Jews make blood sacrifices?

God’s answer:

God then gave me the example of the time when Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. God wasn’t asking Abraham to literally sacrifice Isaac but rather to devote everything He has to God, including his beloved son Isaac. In reading about this, I found that this interpretation is shared by certain rabbis.

“The early rabbinic midrash Genesis Rabbah imagines God as saying "I never considered telling Abraham to slaughter Isaac (using the Hebrew root letters for "slaughter", not "sacrifice")".

Rabbi Yona Ibn Janach (Spain, 11th century) wrote that God demanded only a symbolic sacrifice.