Theological Implications of Sacrifices

Introduction:
The book of Exodus ends with Israel having a place to worship God, the Tabernacle. The book of Leviticus now begins to deal with how the people should worship this God who rescued them out of Egypt. We will now look at the literary structure of the book particularly the structure and see how it develops any major themes and how they relate to the books purpose. In the thematic analysis of the book we will look at the five main categories of sacrifices mentioned and give a brief note of each and finally we will look at the theological implications of the book particularly how the role and practice of sacrifice in the book of Leviticus contrasts with that practiced in African Traditional Religions.
4.1 Literary Structure
Leviticus can be divided into four main themes, offerings, priesthood, clean and uncleanness and the holiness code. These four themes develop to reveal to us the main purpose of the book which is right worship and right living, with becoming holy and staying holy (Arnold & Beyer 1999:120).
4.1.1 The Offerings (1:1-7:38)
For Israel’s existence as the covenant people of God sacrifice was necessary as the existence of sin and impurity threatened their relationship with God (Rooker 2000:49). The process and act of sacrifice was prescribed by God as a means purging impurity caused by sin. This would result in forgiveness and the restoration of the relationship between God and the sinner (Arnold & Beyer 1999:124).
4.1.2 The Priesthood (8:1-10:20)
With the introduction and consecration of the priesthood in Israel we now see how God requires that the people approach Him. This section of the book emphasis the holiness of God and the necessity of approaching Him the right way, we are given an example in N...

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... you knew you had sinned you needed to sacrifice and finally it was for sins that were unintentional (Deffinbaugh n.p.).
4.2.5 Guilt Offering (Leviticus 5:14-6:7)
This was an offering devoted to restitution and reparation and by the structure seems to have been closely linked to the sin offering (Constable n.d.). This offering covered two areas, for inadvertent sin and for deliberate sin (Constable n.d.). This sacrifice was for a trespass against someone, including God, in respect to property. When the offering was bought to the temple there was also restitution to be paid to the offended party, restoration for what had been done and a fine usually about twenty percent (Barnes n.p.). While the first three sacrifices stress the results of the sacrifice from Gods perspective the last two emphasize the result from human perspective (Arnold & Beyer 1999:120-121).