Let God Be Magnified

Everyone –

I thought, “Which book is the least desirable for me to read in Scripture?” And I immediately thought, Leviticus. It seems so mundane and repetitive.

But then I remembered a conversation I had with a friend the other day about how the Law was a tutor that led people to Christ. How? Because the Israelites were so used to performing sacrifices over the hundreds of years that when Christ came as the Lamb of God “to take away the sins of the world,” His action and sacrifice would be meaningful and carry an impact. It’s importance would be readily seen. Because, if you recall, sin had to be atoned for by the slaying of a lamb or a calf, etc, to atone for the sin of the person or group of people. So when Christ came and A) Willingly offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice B) on their behalf the impact of His action, once properly realized, would carry an amazing impact. So that is how the Law leads us to Christ because it paints a picture of what Christ did for us.

Anyway, so I’m reading Leviticus 1 this morning. And as you read on you find out that burn offering has some special significance to Christ.

The burn offering is unique in the following ways:

1) it is wholly consumed on the alter. Nothing is left over

2) it generally followed a sin/guilt offering by the believer

3) in the end God gets everything and the believer gets nothing

4) the believer was the one who actually killed the animal. It was the priest’s responsibility to place it on the altar, etc

What you see, in the end, is that while sin had to be atoned for during the sin offering, fellowship also needed to be restored. This is where the burnt offering comes in as usually followed the sin/guilt offering. The burn offering shows the complete dedication to the Lord following the atoning of sin. In a way it’s like saying, “thank you God for taking away my sin. I restore my worship of You as You desire and deserve.” So by giving all of the offering to God (remember, it was all consumed by the fire) it represents the total (“all consumed”) devotion to God once again. God get’s everything (both in worship and sacrifice of the animal).

But the real picture comes into play when you look at Christ. Hebrews 9:13,14 says:

“For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

Here you see that Christ was without spot. In terms of the burnt offering you see that He fulfilled completely the will of His Father. He gave everything to Him on His walk on earth to fulfill what God had planned. His burnt offering was his complete dedication to the accomplishment of God’s will.

One final note: did you see that it was the believer’s duty to slay the sacrifice? After we confess our sins and restore fellowship with God, we must then repent (“turn around”) from our old ways. There is an action required for us to do in order to maintain fellowship with God. Slay that which keeps you from fellowship from God as your willing sacrifice to Him. Don’t walk in your old ways. Seek first the Kingdom of God….

Later Eriek