Leviticus 1:1–17
Burnt Offerings
We have looked at Genesis and Exodus. Now I’d like to begin our study through Leviticus. It’s important to see where we have been in order to set the stage for where we are going in Leviticus. To summarize the story line of the Pentateuch we should see the basic flow as God dwelling with His people and what degree He is willing to go to make that a reality.
Genesis- Loss of access to God’s presence due to sin and the fall
Exodus- God’s presence fills the tabernacle
Leviticus- How to live in close proximity to God’s presence
Numbers- God’s presence goes with Israel
Deuteronomy- Ongoing life in God’s presence
Leviticus is a book about God extending grace to sinners. Most of it is a result of God’s speaking to Moses and God saying to Moses, speak to the People of Israel and say to them…God invites His people to draw near to Him but only on His terms.
How Leviticus will help the modern Christian…
If we are unfamiliar with the OT and especially what is taught in Leviticus, we will run into problems as we seek to understand the NT.
Here is an example where being unfamiliar with Leviticus greatly hinders our NT understanding…
Romans 12:1 (ESV)
12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Most understand the basics of the sacrificial system where an animal sacrifice is made and the shed blood of the animal is applied to the worshipper as atonement. The worshipper is forgiven because sin’s death warrant was temporarily held back because the animal died instead.
Sacrifice in Leviticus is multi-faceted. Not all sacrifices were directly for atonement. Sometimes the sacrifice was an offering to God from the love the worshipper has. These sacrifices were called offerings.
Paul uses this language in Romans 12 to speak of the worshipper giving himself wholeheartedly to God as a thanksgiving offering. Out of love for God the Christian serves him out of love and this service is viewed by God as worship. This language comes directly from Leviticus.
1. The Burnt Offering: A Male Without Blemish (1:1-17)
Bull, sheep, goats, pigeons and turtledoves
1 The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock.
3 “If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. 4 He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. 5 Then he shall kill the bull before the Lord, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 6 Then he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces, 7 and the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. 8 And Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, the head, and the fat, on the wood that is on the fire on the altar; 9 but its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar, as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
10 “If his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock, from the sheep or goats, he shall bring a male without blemish, 11 and he shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the Lord, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar. 12 And he shall cut it into pieces, with its head and its fat, and the priest shall arrange them on the wood that is on the fire on the altar, 13 but the entrails and the legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall offer all of it and burn it on the altar; it is a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
14 “If his offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves or pigeons. 15 And the priest shall bring it to the altar and wring off its head and burn it on the altar. Its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar. 16 He shall remove its crop with its contents and cast it beside the altar on the east side, in the place for ashes. 17 He shall tear it open by its wings, but shall not sever it completely. And the priest shall burn it on the altar, on the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
The Lord called out to Moses…This begins the Book of Leviticus. Here God does not just speak to Moses but calls out. This is an important marker for the next phase of Israel’s worship. The Tabernacle is up and running.
Because animal sacrifice is such an important part of Israel’s worship God explains exactly how it is to be done. He calls out to Moses a form of declaration of louder volume.
Verse 2 tells us that God is continuing to use Moses in his mediatorial task…2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them…
This burnt offering came from one’s own flock and was used to cover that person’s sin. These were individual or personal offerings. These could be offered regularly or if a person committed specific sins. These offerings could also be devotion type offerings when one would bring to God a portion and keep the rest. If you ate meat from your herd, a portion was given to God through the priest.
Meat however, was rare in Israel. It was often a luxury. So, we also see another aspect of the burnt offering, it was costly. Imagine watching as your best animal goes up in flame. That’s why God required the animal to be from a person’s own flock. Sin is costly.
2 Samuel 24:24 (ESV)
24 But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
This is why no wild animals could be offered to God because they cost nothing.
By the time we get to the Book of Malachi we see that Israel is offering God sick and unhealthy animals.
Malachi 1:7–8 (ESV)
7 By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the Lord’s table may be despised. 8 When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts.
As we look to verses 3 and following, we can get a picture of what this practice looked like. The person needing their sins atoned for brought the best they had. If they were wealthy, it was a bull from their own herd and if they were poor, other animals could be used but still they had to come from their own herd or flock. Their sacrifice had to cost them something.
The worshipper would bring the animal to the outer court where a priest would meet them. They would place their hands symbolically upon the animal show that their sins were being transferred to the sacrifice. Then the worshipper would kill their animal. The priests would collect the blood from the dying sacrifice in a basin lift it up and pray then take it to the altar and splash it against the sides. The animal was then skinned and chopped up by the worshipper. The priest carried the head and the fat portions first placing them on the altar followed by the rest. He washed the pieces before placing them on top to be burned.
And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar, as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
We first see this after the flood. Noah built an altar and offer God animal sacrifices. God’s wrath was turned away.
Genesis 8:20–22 (ESV)
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
What’s important to see here is that fallen man had not changed. Still, they are wicked and evil. What did take place was the sacrifice would keep God’s wrath at bay until Jesus Christ would come to earth.
The purpose of the burnt offering was that the sacrificial animal would die and be a temporary covering or a temporary shield against God’s wrath toward the person due to his sin. The animal died under God’s judgement so the sinner could go free.
End of verse 3…
that he may be accepted before the Lord.
4 He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.
The word translated “atone” literally meant “to cover,” but in the Old Testament, it appears to have taken on the theological meaning of “to take away.” Even today, we can use the word cover to mean “take away”: if a person says, “Let me give you $20 to cover the bill,” this does not mean that debt will be merely covered or hidden or “swept under the rug” but that it will be paid and the obligation removed.
The word atonement is used over 100 times in the Old Testament, primarily in the Pentateuch, and it is usually in the context of a sacrifice, either a blood sacrifice or the payment of a certain amount of money. The idea is that a person or thing is unclean due to sin or some other defilement. Then, with a payment or sacrifice, atonement is made for that person or thing, and it is now holy or acceptable.
2. From the Burnt Offering to Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:6-9)
Hebrews 10:6–10 (ESV)
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ ”
8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews tells us that the OT burnt offering did not give God pleasure even though it was… a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
We see in this Hebrew text that there are two types of sacrifice. The burnt offering animal sacrifice and the sacrifice of Jesus. Our Lord’s incarnation had a multifold purpose and one was so that He would have a physical body which could be sacrificed for the sin of His people. In this God was pleased because unlike the OT sacrifice, Jesus’ sacrifice actually takes sin away.
Here are some NT verses with Levitical language referring to Christ…
Ephesians 5:1–2 (ESV)
5 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
1 Peter 1:18–19 (ESV)
18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
Hebrews 7:27 (ESV)
27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.
John 1:29 (ESV)
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Romans 8:31–39 (ESV)
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I want to end with another comparison. This one between Isaac and Jesus. Jewish tradition highlights the fact that Isaac went willingly to be sacrificed as a burnt offering. It is true he was bound but the fact that he went willingly they say is the basis of God accepting all burnt offerings.
One fact is clear and that is Jesus went willingly as our substitutionary sacrifice. This was pleasing to God.
Genesis 22:6–14 (ESV)
6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
On that mountain God did provide. Calvary’s mountain was the place where God provided true and eternal atonement for our sin. There Jesus died willingly for our sins.
One more Levitical statement…
Mark 1:11 (ESV)
11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
Resources Used:
Leviticus by Wenham
Leviticus by Harper
Leviticus by Greidanus
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