Egyptian Sacrifice

Introduction

In the Old Testament, we will recall that sacrifices of animals were offered to God at different occasions and there were reasons for these actions.

Leviticus 1 verse 5 says ;

And he shall kill the bullock before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

This is a proof that sacrifice during this period requires the sheading of blood of animals, quality cannot be compromised, God can accept or reject such offering like the case of Cain and Abel as recorded in the book of Genesis 4:4, according to this scripture God had respect for Cain’s offering because of its high quality.

There are three different types of sacrifices as recorded in the book of 2 Chronicles chapter 29, they are as follows:

1)

The sacrificial animal for sin offerings depended on the status of the

Sinner offering the sacrifice;

a) for a high priest or an entire community, the sacrifice was to be of a young bullock;

b) for a king or a prince the offering had to be a young male goat; for other individuals the offering had to be either a young female goat, or a female lamb;

c) For poor individuals unable to afford these, a turtle dove sufficed.[2]

Like all types of sacrifices offered on the altar, the animal had to be

Completely unblemished.

The ritual of the sin offering began with the offerer confessing his/her unintentional sin while placing his/her hands and pushing his/her full weight over the head of the animal. In the case of community offerings the elders performed this function, in the case of Yom Kippur, the high priest performs this task. The animal would then be slaughtered by a ritual butcher, the blood carefully collected by the priest in an earthen vessel and sprayed/thrown on the two outer corners of the altar, while the fat, liver, kidneys, and caul, were burnt on the roof of the