In The Eschatological Economy I argued that the community of Israel brings animals to the temple for their God to inspect and pronounce good (or not), and thus publicly to assess and agree on the progress of this sanctification. It is not that animals are made holy, but that the whole people is being made holy. Its animal gifts are shown as samples for the public inspection of the progress towards this promised transformation. So then it is this transformation, which makes sense of this public demonstration-and-inspection process. God is forming and teaching his people. Within this process God insists that his people report back to him at intervals with demonstrations of their progress, by bringing him samples of their husbandry.
Israel’s action – sacrifice – is also a public parody and demythologisation of the nations. Israel is demonstrating to other nations that their worship is all about propitiation and killing because their gods are needy and tyrannical, and thus not gods at all.
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