Last night I did my daily Bible reading, which was Leviticus 15-16. It was not an instructional on sacrifices like the previous chapters, but concerned more *ahem* delicate matters. But, in reading it, brought to mind something about Jehovah God and sacrifices.
When one normally thinks of gods and sacrifices, you think of the Greeks or other ancient religions, including ancient Israel's contemporaries. The comparison was interesting.
In the ancient religions, one would sacrifice for the pleasure of the god, because the god wanted, needed the yummy cooked meat smell; the worshipers make sacrifices in order to, hopefully, get the god to do something for you.
With the one true God, the sacrifices were for Israel's benefit, not His. It was so Israel could come into God's holy presence, to be clean and holy before Him. It was so God could be close to them. Awesome!
Of course, we don't do those sacrifices any longer, because Christ was the ultimate atoning sacrifice, which makes, we who accept His death and resurrection, holy and clean before God, so we can come into God's presence, in prayer and in Heaven.
