Reuven Hammer author of “Entering Jewish Prayer” believes that our forefathers watched their neighbors make sacrifices to their “gods” and felt a need to do the same. However, they understood the difference between a desire to please Y/H/V/H and a desire to control the demi-gods of the pagans. The Pagans worshipped gods who were not all knowing as individuals but within their pantheon cumulatively believed they were. These gods had human needs like the need to eat. As a result, humans were required to provide for their needs. In so doing, humans had some measure of control over their capricious pagan gods and were able to manipulate them, or so they believed. So, in the pagan world sacrifices were brought with prayer to provide for the pagan gods. One example is the Mesopotamian flood epic, where the surviving humans made sacrifices to the gods once the waters abated and the gods were described to have “swarmed around like flies” because they have been without the food offered by humans. In these instances prayer was the secondary offering and of much less importance than the sacrifice.

Sacrifices for Y/H/V/H differ greatly. Unlike the pagan gods, the Most High has no need for us to provide for Him. In fact, it is He Who provides for us. The most pleasure He gets from our offerings is the pleasing odor (see sidebar). The sacrificial system in Israel became something very different and was carefully codified by God Himself in His word. If you don’t believe me, study Leviticus to see what I mean. Lev. 17:5-7 tells us that the Israelites still desired to bring sacrifices, but God told them how to do it properly, no longer bringing them to the goat-demons to whom they once strayed. Clearly:

“Sacrifices are not God’s need, but a favor He grants the people in order to permit them to feel close to Him. Sacrifices became a method of expressing human emotions, be it guilt and repentance or thanksgiving and well-being. They could not however substitute for right conduct and had absolutely no independent value.” Reuven Hammer, Entering Jewish Prayer

In other words, sacrifices were to satisfy man’s need to bring an offering to God, or to show repentance for wrongdoing. They were not made to satisfy God’s need for an offering because God has no needs other than worship.