12 And if his offering be a goat, then he shall offer it before the Lord.

13 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of it, and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation: and the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle the blood thereof upon the altar round about.

14 And he shall offer thereof his offering, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord; the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards,

15 And the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away.

16 And the priest shall burn them upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet savour: all the fat is the Lord’s.

We heard the process of offering cattle, and sheep, and now a goat. And the instructions for doing so have been essentially identical all the way through.

This sort of repetition and redundancy in the Bible is well-known and has even been the target of mockery. Why doesn’t the record just give the instructions once, and then say that it applies to all three animal types?

Perhaps it is because the sacrifices were individual, so the descriptions for them were also. There are many things that we do in life that are repetitive, yet we describe them in detail because they are also individual. When a child is born, we don’t just say, “yeah, the birth went like all the other birth stories you’ve ever heard.” No, we still share about the contractions, and the water breaking, and the drive to the hospital, and the delivery, because these moments, though common to many people, still occur to us on an individual level. And this child’s birth is not the same thing as that child’s birth. So, too, every animal that was slain at the altar was an individual process. Every time that a person has made an offering of their heart to the Lord, it is not the same thing as another person’s offering of the heart. Each of us walk a path that sounds like many others, but it is also a path that no one else has ever walked before.

Sacrifice	Eligible oblation	Steps	Explanation
Peace Offering	Cattle, Lamb, Goat		Gratitude for reconciliation
		Animal is slain	Giving up old life for one of unity with another
		Fat burned on altar	Giving up old plans, passions, and drives

Full table.