Donald W. Parry (professor of the Hebrew Bible, BYU): 

The law of Moses included a complex set of sacrificial offerings, which were given at the tabernacle’s altar of sacrifice and, later, in the temple in Jerusalem. The offerings included unblemished male or female goats, sheep, or cattle, depending on the type of sacrifice. Grain offerings included flour or grain (at times with oil), salt, or incense; no honey or leavening was permitted.

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Six ceremonial actions were conducted with most of the sacrifices:

1. Presentation of the sacrifice at the door of temple or on the north side of the altar.

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2. Laying hands on the sacrificial victim. The worshipper or priest laid his hands on the sacrifice to consecrate the offering to God and to make the sacrifice the offerer’s substitute.

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3. Slaughter of the animal.

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4. Sprinkling or pouring of the blood. For most animal sacrifices, the priest collected the animal’s blood and sprinkled a portion of it on the sides of the altar and poured the remainder at the altar’s base.

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5. Burning of the sacrifice. Depending on the sacrifice, the priest burned part or all of the animal on the altar.

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6. Partaking of the sacrificial meal.

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As a disciple of Jesus Christ and as a student of the scriptures, I can see significant elements of Jesus Christ and His Atonement in all six ceremonial actions of these sacrifices, which were offered as a “similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father” (Moses 5:7). Consider action 2, for example: When the temple worker (for example, priest or high priest) laid his hands on the head of an animal, he was symbolically transferring the sins of humans to the animal; then the animal was slaughtered in the prescribed manner. In a sense, the act of laying on of hands served as a conduit from the human to the animal. Thus the passage reads, “Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat” (Lev. 16:21; see also Lev. 1:4). The laying on of hands on sacrificial animals symbolizes Jesus Christ’s divine sacrifice, when He took upon Himself all of our sins and iniquities. This divine, infinite act has eternal consequences to me personally.