The greatest expression of one's religion and worship is found in sacrifice. Sacrifice is defined as "man's intimate relationship with Almighty God (Catholic Biblical Encyclopedia, 786)." Sacrifice in the Old Testament was the most important act a man could perform to show his love for God. Sacrifice consists of this, that man must take an important part of his life, such as an animals, or food, and offer it as a gift to God and at the same time make it a victim in place of himself to acknowledge God's absolute majesty (Catholic Biblical Encyclopedia 786). Man gives a fraction of his personal goods to God in a sacrifice. This surrender of his property occurs when the gift is removed from its future usefulness to him. In a word, sacrifices served to make man show his love and loyalty to God (Dictionary of the Bible, 755).
The Old Testament has two different types of sacrifices, bloody and unbloody. Unbloody sacrifices consisted of any type of garden produce, such as grain, fruit, wine, and oils. Bloody sacrifices consisted of animals, such as sheep, goats, and cattle. Sacrifices could be either male or female. However some special occasions require it to be one or the other. Normally herd animals had to be at least 8 years old to be accepted for sacrifice. The sacrifice had to be perfect, it could have no blemishes and show no weaknesses. Any animal that could not be eaten as food was not suitable for sacrifice. Humans were not accepted as sacrifice and sacrificing them was forbidden by the law with the most severe punishment. Every sacrifice required a certain ritual that must be performed (Catholic Biblical Encyclopedia, 787).
Rituals for the bloody ...