You shall have no other gods before me. you shall not make for yourself an idol. you shall not misuse the name of the LORD our God. remember the sabbath day by keeping it holy. honor your father and your mother so that you may live long. you shall not murder. you shall not commit adultery. you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. you shall not covet your neighbors house. you shall not covet your neighbors wife, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. i don't see anything about sacrifices in the 10 commandments.
There are none there...
Deu 5:22 These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice:
and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.
Now in Deut 5:6-21 God restated (hence the name of the book Deuteronomy) the Ten Commandments. He added no more (at that time) and we will see when He added sacrifices and why.
Jer 7:22 For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
Jer 7:23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.
Jer 7:24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
Why didn't they?
Deu 5:29 O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!
They did not have the heart to obey. Why not?
Joh 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
Joh 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Joh 14:14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
Joh 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Joh 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Joh 14:17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
They had not received the Holy Spirit yet that would enable them to have the kind of heart that could obey. A heart that wanted to live as God lives. (Obviously, no human does this perfectly but the Spirit enables us to think as God thinks and live as God lives. When we stumble and fail Grace is the forgiveness that is applied to us and washes us clean again.) Back to the program...
So animal sacrifices were instituted. We'll see why in a bit, first let's see when the animal sacrifices were offered...
Passover was on the 14th of the 1st month...
Exo 12:2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.
Exo 12:3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:
Exo 12:4 And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
Exo 12:5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
Exo 12:6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
In the third month they came to Sinai...
Exo 19:1 In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
Exo 19:2 For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.
Tradition has it that the Law was given from Mt. Sinai on Pentecost. That would be the fiftieth day after the Wave Sheaf offering which occured during the Days of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:6-21). The sacrifices were offered at the Tabernacle by the Priests, the sons of Aaron. The Tabernacle was not completed until the first month of the second year...
Exo 40:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Exo 40:2 On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.
Exo 40:3 And thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the vail.
Exo 40:4 And thou shalt bring in the table, and set in order the things that are to be set in order upon it; and thou shalt bring in the candlestick, and light the lamps thereof.
Exo 40:5 And thou shalt set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark of the testimony, and put the hanging of the door to the tabernacle.
Exo 40:6 And thou shalt set the altar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.
So it was at least nine months after Mt. Sinai that sacrifices were offered. What was there purpose?
Heb 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
Heb 10:2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
Heb 10:3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
These animal sacrifices could not forgive sin...
Heb 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
But Christ's perfect sacrifice can and does...
Heb 10:5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
Heb 10:6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Heb 10:7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
Heb 10:8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
Heb 10:9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
Heb 10:10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Heb 10:11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
Heb 10:12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
Why then animal sacrifices?
Heb 10:3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
They pointed to the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ...
Gal 3:21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
Gal 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
They were the schoolmaster that pointed to, that leads us to Jesus Christ. They were the shadow of the perfect Sacrifice.