LEVITICUS: Chapters 3 & 4

Chapter 3
Summary:	God reinforces that anyone who brings a bull or a cow for animal sacrifice must bring an animal completely free of defects. He continues, repeating that whomever brings the animal must lay his hand upon the animal's head and kill it at the door to the tabernacle. The priests will then throw the animal's blood against the sides of the altar, and burn the animal fat, the kidneys, and the gall bladder - as this will give God much pleasure. God reinforces that anyone who brings either a goat or a sheep, male or female, for animal sacrifice must bring one completely free of defects. It can be a ram or ewe, billy goat or nanny goat. When sacrificing lambs, a man must lay his hand upon the animal's head and kill it at the door to the tabernacle. The priests will then throw the animal's blood against the sides of the altar, and burn the fat, the kidneys, the gall bladder, and the tail removed close to the backbone. When sacrificing goats, a man must lay his hand upon the animal's head and kill it at the door to the tabernacle. The priests will then throw the animal's blood against the sides of the altar, and burn the animal fat, the kidneys, and the gall bladder - as this will give God much pleasure. All the animal fat belongs to God - this is a permanent law that consuming fat or blood is forbidden.
Thoughts:	God gives us some more specifics on how he wants animal sacrifices conducted, and that all of the animal fat belongs to him. Priests again get to splash the animal blood on the sides of the altar. He lays down another permanent law as well, forbidding people from eating animal fat or drinking blood.
Chapter 4
Summary:	God now tells Moses what to do if people unintentionally breaks any commandments. If a priest sins unintentionally - thereby bringing guilt upon the people - he must grab a young bull, free from defects, bring it to the door of the tabernacle, lay his hand upon its head, and slaughter it before God. The priest shall then take the animal's blood inside, dip his finger into the blood, and sprinkle it seven times (there's that number again) before God in front of the veil of the sanctuary. Then the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the incense altar. The remainder of the blood shall be poured out at the base of the altar at the entrance to the tabernacle. He shall then take the fat, the kidneys, and the gall bladder and burn them on the altar. The remainder of the animal shall be carried out to a ceremonially clean place outside of the camp and burned there on a wood fire. If the entire nation of Israel sins out of ignorance, all of the people are guilty. When they realize what they have done, they are to grab a young bull, bring it to the entrance of the tabernacle, where the leaders of the nation shall lay their hands upon its head while it is slaughtered before God. The priest shall then bring the animal's blood into the tabernacle, dip his finger into the blood, and sprinkle it seven (again with that number) times before God, in front of the veil. Then the priest will put put blood upon the horns of the altar, and pour the rest at the base of the burnt offering altar. All the fat shall be removed and burned upon the altar and the priest will follow the same procedures as if atoning for the sin of an individual. If one of the leaders of Israel sins out of ignorance, as soon as it is brought to his attention he must bring a billy goat - without physical defects - as an animal sacrifice. He shall lays his hands upon the goat's head and kill it at the entrance to the tabernacle to present it to God. The priest is then to smear the blood upon the horns of the altar with his finger, and to pour the rest at the altar's base. Following the usual procedure, the priest will burn the animal fat upon the altar and the leader will be forgiven for his atonement. If any one of the common people sins out of ignorance, they are to bring a nanny goat as their animal sacrifice to God. Following the usual procedure (a person placing the hand upon the animal's head and killing it, smearing blood upon the altar, etc.) this will make atonement for the person's sin and he will be forgiven. A female lamb can also be substituted for the nanny goat for the sins of the common man.
Thoughts:	God gives some specifics here as to which animals people of different status must use as in animal sacrifices if they sin against God "unintentionally" or out of ignorance. I just fail to see how slaughtering a goat fixes anything, and with the vast amount of animal slaughter God commands, I would think the people would become rather desensitized to the act and learn nothing to correct their behavior. In a more modern example, the crime of manslaughter is an unintentional killing, but one where the offender is still viewed as negligent. Imagine if a judge, instead of sentencing a person to jail or prison, made the offender slaughter a goat. Perhaps the first time somebody saw a goat brutally slaughtered in the courtroom, seeing its blood smeared all over the judge's bench, it might cause the offender to think about the consequences of their crime, but when brutally killing animals and playing around in its blood is common place - as it was in the bronze age - people become desensitized to the cruelty and suffering of the animals. God presumably must realize that human beings are imperfect and bound to make mistakes, and therefore it would appear that he is actually intentionally sending many animals to a brutal and terrible fate for his own "pleasure" in it. It's hard to rationalize this as anything but.