Numbers 15:11. "Thus it shall be done for each bull or ram, or for each of the male lambs or the kids." The "thus" that shall be done is that for each sacrifice of one of these animals, a concurrent sacrifice of a specified cereal offering and drink offering shall be made. Each sacrificial offering, then, included meat, grain, and drink, representing all of the nourishment God has given us.

God's rules for sacrifice were not about Him needing any of these things, but were all about us. We have an innate need to sacrifice, even if we don't always realize it. If we don't sacrifice to God, we end up sacrificing to something else, and that something else becomes an idol to us. Idols are insatiable, we make them so. We keep giving and giving to them in expectation of receiving a release from our distress that they cannot give, they can only take. Think of any obsession or addiction and this becomes obvious, but our idolatry is not limited to these extremes.

God on the other hand, set limits and specifications to what we are to sacrifice to Him. He tells us very clearly what to do to satisfy this need we have to sacrifice, because He knows us so well. We can do it, then, and know we have done it properly. We can be assured that God has received it, because it was He who told us what to do, and we can thus be free.

The things God asks us to sacrifice are good things, in fact He asks us to sacrifice our "first fruits." (See Proverbs 3:9) Our sacrifices remind us of His goodness to us, and how He provides for us. They force us to pay attention to what we have been given, and to willingly give some back to God. But not just to God, a portion of many of the sacrifices was to be eaten by the priests, who had no land of their own on which to grow food. (See Leviticus 6:26) By requiring an animal, grain, and wine offering, and specifying that the priest was to eat of it, God was making sure his priests were well fed and cared for.

God really has thought everything out! We do not have to second-guess Him, just do what He says and we will have peace in our hearts, a peace that we cannot get anywhere else, especially not from all the idols we love to sacrifice our time and treasure to.