The Priest, the Creator

So why were the offerings, the ritual sacrifices in the Old Testament that God ordained, so elaborate? At least part of the answer is that God intended them to point back to the original act of Creation. The Tabernacle and the Temple were the world in miniature. As the priest was to separate the portions of the animal and put them in their respective places, so God divided land from sea from heavens. The priest acted the part of God, creating and ordering the world. And as the sacrifices atoned for sin, so those people represented by the animals were ritually made a new creation.