Leviticus 1

Leviticus 1 begins to introduce the sacrificial law, and a couple of interesting things jumped out at me. The first is how gruesome the laws are. For bulls, for instance, one is to bring it to the tent of meeting, lay one's hand on its head, then cut it's head off, splash the drained blood on the sides of the altar, flay it, and burn it. That seems really harsh, especially for something that's doing morally significant work in one's place (chapter 1 seems to be in the context of guilt offerings). In addition to this apparent brutality, a number of procedural requirements seem very arbitrary. For instance, when one is offering a sheep as a burnt offering it has to be killed on the north side of the altar, but only when it's a sheep. Why the north side? Why only for sheep? It's very specific and doesn't obviously symbolize anything. Of course, I might simply be unaware of what the symbolic import is, but I'll set that aside for now.

So I was wondering why the person bringing the offering needs to engage in so much bloody gruesomeness, and why the laws are so particular in a way that is not obviously symbolically or practically useful. About the gruesomeness, my thought is that it could be meant to impress on the offerer the seriousness of what the sacrifice is being offered for--in this case, it seems to be guilt. It is the one offering (say) a bull who has to make a connection with it by laying hands on its head, and then kill it by slitting its throat and letting the blood drain out. One thought is that this is supposed to tell the person who brought the bull just how fortunate he is to have the animal taking the penalty for guilt for him. But you might be thinking, "Aaron, these people lived in an agrarian society. They would have been used to killing animals and probably would not have thought much of it. And even if someone did find it gruesome to sacrifice an animal the first time, what about 50th time? Surely everyone would get used to this kind of thing." And this leads me to my thought about the apparently useless, but very particular, instructions. My thought is that they might be there to curb an inclination toward brutality that might come out of repeatedly killing things sacrificially. I think it is pretty clear that humans can acquire a taste being brutal, and by making sacrifices very particular and very procedural, one might think that this inclination would be curbed. Even if one does not find it remarkable to slaughter an animal in the manner prescribed, hopefully one will at least not come to really enjoy killing that way simply because it is a ritualistic hassle to do so. By making the instructions so exacting, God might be attempting to remind the Israelites that they are performing God's ceremonies for God's purposes.

I'm sure there is much more to say about chapter 1, and much more going on, but I hope you enjoyed my little tidbit on it! Have a wonderful day.