During Abraham's time, animal sacrifice acted like a deep symbolic ritual whereby blood was to be drained from the animal during a sacrifice to remind worshippers of death. In this case, blood represented life, Leviticus 17:11 (Alyssa, 2017). To provide an understanding of animal sacrifice, the beginning of Genesis 3 story talks about the fall of humankind after Adam and Eve went against God, making the people in the world start sinning, brings the insight of why God needed animal sacrifice. From this generation onwards, when Cain killed Abel, humanity became so wicked, and God instituted a temporary solution of animal sacrifice as a way of reconciling with sinful people. Animals were being offered for different offerings and were deeply symbolic. The slaughtering of animals was meant to carry away the sins of Israel. The sprinkling of blood meant cleansing of life and the death of sins, as blood was a living symbol.
Unlike other deities, God was so humane and was not appeased by animal offerings. However, there were no other means of punishing Abraham’s trembling faith than offering an animal sacrifice (Alyssa, 2017). The people were too sinful and rebellious, which was not to be taken lightly. Something had to die to cover up his people's sins, so he offered an animal sacrifice as a temporary means. God dearly loved his people and needed a way to approach him. The Israelites gained favor in God's eyes through animal sacrifices.
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God calling Abraham was unique. He called Abraham out of a sinful generation to act as a salvation conduit. Abraham provides a pivotal character in redemption history (Gregory, 2017). Abraham’s call came after the floods, and the earth was sinful that God destroyed it. Even after, Noah's descendants become more sinful, and they even built the babel tower. The people became so proud and started bringing glory to themselves apart from God. Instead of procreating, they built the tower of babel for their honor. God called Abraham to bring salvation to humankind through him.
References
Alyssa, R. (2017). “Why Did God Require Animal Sacrifices in the Bible? Does it Serve Any Purpose Today?” Christianity.com https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/why-did-god-require-animal-sacrifices-in-the-bible-does-it-serve-any-purpose-today.html
Gregory B. (2017). “Understanding God’s Call (Genesis 12:1–9).” Bible.org https://bible.org/seriespage/1-understanding-god-s-call-genesis-121-9
