“Leviticus: Once Separated, Now Sanctified (Leviticus 1)" | 1/14/24
Leviticus 1 | 1/14/24 | Will DuVal
By show of hands: whose favorite book of Bible is…
*Romans?
*Psalms?
*Proverbs?
*John?
*Song of Solomon? (youth group…)
*Revelation? (watch out for those people!)
*How about… LEVITICUS??
Leviticus has been referred to as the “graveyard of good intentions”, for those who set out to read through the Bible cover to cover. Genesis is filled with fascinating stories, so too is Exodus (at least the first half). But then you reach LEVITICUS. Where, as commentator Allan Moseley (Leviticus, 4-6) points out, we “read about sacrifices that are no longer offered, a priesthood that no longer exists, and laws we are no longer obligated to obey. [Which] Levicitus describes in TEDIOUS detail, so some people ask, “Why is all this in the Bible, and what does it mean for [ME]?””
It’s the reason there was an audible GROAN at the annual meeting last month when I announced this sermon series. (Apparently some of y’all aren’t as SANCTIFIED as I thought… good JOB security for me, though; clearly still got some WORK to do… 😉)
It’s why so few pastors PREACH through Leviticus. Out of MY list of favorites - I tried looking up sermons on Leviticus, and:
David Platt, Tim Keller, John Piper, JD Greear, David Guzik, Skip Heitzig, Tony Merida, D.A. Carson, Philip Ryken, Sandy Willson, John Onwuchekwa, Andrew Wilson, Jason Lim (current!), Kevin DeYoung, Sam Storms, Kent Hughes… -
Only TWO of them have preached through Leviticus.
**Show of hands again: how many of you have ever sat through a sermon series - minimum 3 SERMONS - on Leviticus?
Here’s MY case for this series:
“God is perfect. We are not. And according to the Bible, our sins separate us from a holy God (Isa 59:2). So how can sinners be brought back into (and stay in) relationship with a sinless God?
God’s ultimate, final answer to that most important of all questions is JESUS. But a millennium and a half before he was born in a manger, God graciously provided a way for His people to BE in (and stay in) relationship with Him. LEVITICUS was the way.
Leviticus outlines God’s original solution to the problem of sin more directly than any other book of the Old Testament. Thus, it prefigures the gospel as powerfully as any book of the BIBLE. We study it to our advantage, and we ignore it to our peril.
-
Leviticus points us ahead to JESUS as much as ANY OT book. Moseley agrees: “Leviticus provides the theological foundation for the atoning work of Christ. The idea of substitutionary sacrifice receives its fullest explication in Leviticus.”
Jay Sklar - professor at Covenant Seminary just across the street, and one of the world’s foremost evangelical scholars on the book of Leviticus (just last year he published THE commentary - 800 pgs! - on Leviticus) - he writes (Leviticus (2023), 2): “While many Christians view Leviticus as a burden, the Israelites [saw] it as a blessing. [It was the first Scripture that Jews would introduce their children to!] For them, it was life-giving instruction that answered life’s most important questions: How do we live in relationship with the LORD, our covenant King? How do we reflect his holy character to the watching world?”
Moseley adds: “Leviticus describes the entire religious system of ancient Israel. If we hope to understand how religion worked in [biblical times], we must understand Leviticus… Over half of the commentary in the Talmud, the basis for rabbinic law, is concerned with the book of Leviticus.”
But I’ll give you one ADDITIONAL reason to study Leviticus, and it’s really the only reason that ANY Bible-believing Christians should NEED: because “All Scripture - ALL Scripture! - is God-breathed, and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that [we] may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim 3:16-17)
We study Leviticus because we BELIEVE GOD when he says, “It’s ALL my word!” When he says, “It will PROFIT you, to study this!” WITHOUT it, you will be IGNORANT, WAYWARD, LOST, and UN-trained in the ways of righteousness. You’ll be IN-complete, and UN-equipped to do my will.”
Leviticus is quoted over 15x in the NT, and alluded to over 100x!
Jesus’ favorite VERSE in the Bible - the one he quoted more than ANY other - is from Leviticus (anyone KNOW it?) – “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18).
Alright, so it’s IMPORTANT!! Do you BELIEVE me?! Do you believe GOD?! Good. 🙂 Now let’s STUDY it.
First, some Background Info:
TITLE:
*Comes from the Latin Vulgate (Leviticus) which comes from the Greek Septuagint = leuitikon (or “matters of the Levites”); However, “In Hellenistic times, “Levites” just meant priests. So the title [indicates] that the book pertains to priestly matters.” (Moseley, 3)
Leviticus was essentially God’s “how to” manual for the OT priests; it served as their guidebook for leading Israel both in liturgical WORSHIP and in everyday HOLINESS.
AUTHORSHIP:
MOSES’ authorship of Leviticus is corroborated by the OT (1 Chr 15:15; 22:13; 2 Chr 23:18; Ez 3:2; Neh 1:7; Mal 4:4)...
by all four Gospel writers (Mt 8:4; Mk 12:26; Lk 2:22; 24:27; Jn 1:17)...
by the apostle Paul (Rom 10:5)...
and by Jesus HIMSELF, on MULTIPLE occasions (Mt 19:7-8; Mk 1:44; Lk 5:14). (Moseley, 6)
Moses wrote Leviticus. But MOST of it was DICTATED to him directly by God himself; 85% of Leviticus is direct speech from God, introduced with the phrase: “And God SAID to Moses…” (Harper, 22). So when we ignore Leviticus, we ignore GOD.
DATE?
“The exodus occurred in 1445 BC and we know from Exodus 40:17 that the tabernacle was finished one year later. Leviticus picks up the record at that point, probably revealed in the first month of the second year after the exodus (so, 1444 BC). The book of Numbers will begin [a month LATER,] in the second month (Num 1:1).” (MacArthur Study Bible, “Intro to Leviticus”, 151):
So if you want a visual TIMELINE…
From Ex 15 (crossing of Red Sea) – Ex 18 (arrival at Mt. Sinai) = Israel spent 1 ½ months, wandering in wilderness
From Ex 19 (arrival at Mt. Sinai) – Num 10:10 (wheels up toward Promised Land) = 11 ½ months, camped at Mt. Sinai, including Leviticus
But we know it took them TEN months to receive the Law and build the tabernacle (Ex 19-40)
So God must have laid out ALL the regulations of Leviticus - from where we left off in Ex 40 (v2), to where we’ll pick the story back up in Num 1:1 - over the course of about 1 MONTH.
THEMES:
*Leviticus has more to say about 1) blood, 2) sacrifice, 3) priests and 4) holiness than any other book in the Bible.
But of those four, the theme of holiness is the most emphasized. Holiness is mentioned 156 times!
* John MacArthur points out: “On over 125 occasions, Leviticus indicts mankind for uncleanness and/or instructs us on how to be purified. The motive for such holiness is stated in two repeated phrases: “I am YHWH” and “I am holy”. These [2 phrases] are used over 50 times.” (Study Bible, 152)
So the motivation for OUR holiness is GOD’S holiness; he calls us, explicitly and repeatedly, to “be holy, as I am holy”.
*In addition, ONE-FOURTH of the OT uses of the phrase “Before the LORD” occur here; as well as ONE-THIRD of the OT appearances of the “tent of meeting”. Hence, Leviticus emphasizes the importance of living in God’s PRESENCE too.
And it stresses the MEANS of doing so as well; the only WAY in which Israel could live in God’s presence, as we’ll see, was through SACRIFICE. Almost ONE HALF of the OT use (48%) of the verb “make atonement” (kaphar) occurs here in Leviticus.
Thus, commentator Geoffrey Harper summarizes Leviticus’ theme as (Teaching Leviticus, 20): “Preparing people to live near Yahweh’s earthly presence and survive the encounter.”
Sklar (1) melds that theme of God’s presence together WITH the theme of his holiness, and summarizes Leviticus’s purpose as: demonstrating how “to live in [God’s] holy presence and to live OUT his holy character as his holy people.” [repeat!]
OUTLINE:
Leviticus can be outlined in MANY different ways; we saw one option already, in the Bible Project video. I’ll offer you just two more:
1) James Luther Mays suggests THIS breakdown for the book as a whole (adapted; in Moseley, 4):
chs1-7: “How can sinful and defiled people [be in relationship with] a holy God?” → A: SACRIFICES
chs8-10: “Who can offer sacrifices?” → A: PRIESTS
chs11-16: “What must accompany sacrifices?” → A: PURIFICATION (Lev 11-16)
chs17-27: “How do we remain holy unto the Lord? → A: OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S LAW (Lev 17-27)
Or if you want an even BIGGER picture OUTLINE, even MORE zoomed out, Skip Heitzig suggests this:
Leviticus 1-16 = “the way to God through sacrifice”;
Leviticus 17-27: “the walk with God through sanctification”
Lastly, before we dive in:
HOW DO WE STUDY IT?
We already covered WHY we study Leviticus: cuz it’s too important NOT to! But HOW do we study it? Let me offer THREE practical suggestions:
1) MOST importantly: READ IT for yourself! Don’t SKIP it, in your Bible reading plans, EVER again! And just like EVERY book of the Bible we preach through here, I’m going to STRONGLY encourage - URGE you; you will be exponentially more “profited”, better “taught”, “reproved”, “corrected”, “trained”, “equipped”, “COMPLETED”! - if you read through each chapter of Leviticus for yourself the week BEFORE I preach on it. Even if you HAVE read it before; RE-read it the week prior. Some weeks we’ll cover 2 chapters, or MORE, so you need to subscribe to our church email newsletter and check that REGULARLY to know what to read for the week.
2) Secondly, as you DO read, ask yourself the 3 questions of good Inductive Bible study:
Observe: What does this passage SAY? (original context)
Interpret: What does it MEAN? (then AND now; bridge: what would it have meant for THEM, and then BASED on that answer, what does it mean for US, today)
Apply: How must I RESPOND? (how is God calling me to INCORPORATE that principle I gleaned, in step #2, into my life today, practically)
So 1) READ, 2) ASK, and then 3) CHECK - check your understanding of the passage against OTHERS’ understanding.
Of course that can be done in COMMUNITY - study it together as a LIFE group (Moskals…).
It SHOULD be done on SUNDAYS - see if your understanding and application of each chapter lines up with MINE, in the sermon.
But third, I’ll encourage you to get yourself a good commentary. Here are the ones I plan to use throughout our series… But you can save money and find EXCELLENT commentaries available online now for FREE; I’ll just mention TWO:
1) One is particular to the book of Leviticus, and that is Jay Sklar’s website - where he summarizes the main points of his 800-pg volume for you.
2) And the other is The Gospel Coalition free online commentary series.
Okay, enough introduction; without further ado: Would you STAND… Leviticus 1; the word of the Lord:
“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.”
[This is the word of God… SEATED…]
Now, if I could tweak the outline in your bulletin slightly, I would give you LESS room under points #1 & 2, so I could leave you MORE room for notes on points #3 & 4. That’s where we’ll spend the BULK of the second half of the sermon now. If you’ve got your Leviticus STUDY journal, it’s an easy fix - I believe we have MORE of those... But points #1 & 2 help outline the ENTIRE book of Leviticus - and my SUBTITLE for the series: “Once Separated, Now Sanctified” - while points #3 & 4 zoom in on chapter 1 specifically, and its “whole burnt offering” that we find here.
Let’s dive in!
For starters, our subtitle: Leviticus OPENS with a people…
1) Once SEPARATED from God (1:1; cf. Ex. 40:35)
The first word of the book in v1 is “And…”, which connects Leviticus back to the book of EXODUS (which conveniently, we just finished studying together last YEAR, so hopefully it’s somewhat fresh on your MINDS!). Most commentators suggest we actually treat Leviticus as something like a SEQUEL to Exodus.
So to appreciate this sense of continuity, let’s actually flip BACK and remind ourselves where the story left off in EXODUS. You may recall the last SIXTEEN CHAPTERS of Exodus were almost exclusively concerned with Israel’s construction of the TABERNACLE, God’s portable DWELLING place, amongst His people, along their journey through the wilderness, and really, for the next 500 YEARS of Israel’s history, until King Solomon would build the TEMPLE.
In Ex25-31 God said, “Build the tabernacle like THIS” and in Ex35-40 Moses recorded, “So we built the tabernacle… like THAT” (exactly as God SAID to). So that God would come and DWELL with us.
And he DID! That’s where the story left off; in the last chapter of Exodus, ch40; we read: “So Moses finished the [tabernacle]. Then the cloud [the shekinah glory CLOUD, of God’s MANIFEST PRESENCE among them; it] covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”
It WORKED! Israel BUILT God a home, and sure enough, he CAME to live with them.
But there was a PROBLEM. We read on, and the very next verse says: “But Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting”. Why?
Because the HOLINESS of God’s presence was too overwhelming for sinful man to endure. It’s like the SUN analogy, from the VIDEO. The sun is WONDERFUL - ESSENTIAL for life on earth. But it’s also DANGEROUS if you get too close.
DARKNESS simply cannot EXIST in the presence of LIGHT - it is ERADICATED! And in the same way, SIN cannot exist in the presence of GOD.
So GOOD news: “God now LIVES in the TENT we built Him”;
BAD news: “Now WE can’t get inside the tent, to be WITH Him”.
That’s why Leviticus OPENS in v1 with “The Lord call[ing] to Moses… FROM the tent of meeting”. God’s in the tent; Moses CAN’T be.
UNTIL… [point #2 now… ]
2) We must be SANCTIFIED BY God (26:11-12; cf. Num. 1:1)
To “Sanctify” is to “make HOLY”. If God is holy and we are sinful and sin can’t exist in God’s presence, then to BE in God’s presence, we must be… MADE HOLY. See how that works?
And that is exactly the purpose and function of Leviticus. If we flip ahead to the book of NUMBERS, IT opens in ch1: “The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, IN the tent of meeting…” (1:1).
Leviticus 1:1 - Moses is OUTSIDE the tent; Numbers 1:1 - now he’s INSIDE the tent, WITH God!
ONE month, one BOOK (Leviticus!), 5 sacrifices, 251 laws later, and now we can finally enter into God’s presence again, in a way that humanity hadn’t been ABLE to since the Garden of EDEN. Don’t miss the PROFUNDITY of this development, in redemptive history!
And it’s only possible because God had SANCTIFIED them; made them “HOLY”. That’s where Leviticus ends; God concludes: “I will make my dwelling among you… And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.” (26:11-12)
What a beautiful promise!… IF they’ll OBEY.
Okay, now let’s bring it down to ch1 specifically:
“Once SEPARATED from God, now SANCTIFIED by God…” – HOW??
#3- Through SACRIFICES TO God. (1:2)
That’s the FIRST thing out of God’s mouth, in v2; the SOLUTION to this problem of God being INSIDE the tent… and Moses and all the PEOPLE being stuck OUTSIDE the tent; God says: “When you bring a SACRIFICE”, an “offering”.
Your MOM used to make you WASH UP before you could come back INSIDE, after you’d been out playing in the MUD with your friends growing up, didn’t she? So why wouldn’t we expect GOD to ask us to “WASH UP” before we enter HIS house, HIS presence, spiritually, after we’ve been wallowing in the filth of SIN all week long. Jesus told his disciples, “Unless I WASH you, you have no SHARE with me”; our SIN has to be washed AWAY.
And according to GOD, the only cleaning SOLVENT powerful enough for the job is BLOOD. The book of HEBREWS, our LAST study, in the fall, told us: “under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” (9:22) We need a SACRIFICE!
And there are EIGHT THINGS that we need to understand, now, about this FIRST type of sacrifice - the “whole burnt offering”; I’ll give you FOUR of them under point #3, but they really ALL belong together, so they’ll all share a “P” alliteration:
First, 1) This offering is PARADIGMATIC. The whole burnt offering was really the prototypical sacrifice; it sets the pattern for ALL the other offerings to follow. Allen Ross explains (Holiness to the Lord, p85-86) : “This was THE essential offering of the sanctuary. It was the regular offering made there in the mornings and the evenings and at scheduled feasts; it was also the basic sacrifice worshipers offered when drawing near to God.”
It was the most common type of sacrifice. It was often combined with the OTHER offerings. And many of the basic, universal PRINCIPLES of the IDEA of sacrifice will be introduced here, right off the bat.
2) This offering is PRESCRIBED.
Notice: v2 says “When you bring…”.
It doesn’t say, “IF you bring…” - this sacrifice wasn’t OPTIONAL.
But it ALSO doesn’t say, “You MUST bring…” - God intentionally DOESN’T phrase it as a COMMAND. Because there is a significant sense in which God wanted this offering to be VOLUNTARY, not simply out of obligation.
So it’s not optional, but also not quite commanded; it was STRONGLY encouraged and EXPECTED of God’s people.
This sacrifice was God’s answer to the Psalmist’s question, in Psalm 116, v12: “What shall I render to the Lord for all his goodness to me?” – God says, “I’ll TELL you what I’d love in response: a BULL. A LAMB. A goat. A bird.”
3) One’s offering was to be PRECIOUS (even PERFECT?!) but it was ALSO always POSSIBLE. Notice BOTH those ideas spelled out here:
On the ONE hand, it had to be PRECIOUS - “a male without blemish”. The BEST of the BEST (sorry, ladies… but don’t take offense: you’re not a lady BULL. See, they’d use only their very best male bull to impregnate ALL of the female cows; that’s why the MALE was the most valuable. He was also STRONGER, for helping out in the fields).
Moreover, he had to be “without BLEMISH” - NO imperfections! Only the BEST will do, as a gift for GOD. Centuries later, in the book of MALACHI, God would RAIL against Israel for DISHONORING Him: “When you offer blind animals in sacrifice… 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” (1:8). “I am GOD! Don’t I deserve your BEST?!”
And YET, don’t miss God’s gracious accommodation here as well, his recognition that ONE person’s best is different than ANOTHER’s. If you can bring the “deluxe gift” - the bull (vv3-9) - DO it. If you can only afford the “standard sacrifice” - a sheep or goat (vv10-13) - then bring THAT. And if you can only afford the “budget offering” - a dove or a pigeon (vv14-17) - then bring THAT.
The point is: bring the best that YOU can bring. But don’t forget: “NO ONE is too poor to give a gift to God.” (Harper, 61)
But most important of ALL 4 sub-points under #3 (“Sacrifice”) here is #4 now; that…
4) This offering served as both a PROXY and a PROPITIATION for the one offering it.
Look at what they DID with the animal; v3: “[The offerer] shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting… [and v4] He shall lay his hand on its head”. What’s THAT all about?
Sklar explains: “This… established a relationship between the offerer and animal so that the animal would be accepted on the offerer’s behalf… [It signified both] Transference: the offerer is transferring something - [his] sin / impurity - to the animal [AND] Substitution: the offerer is saying “this is me”.” (91)
“This animal now STANDS IN MY PLACE. It should be MY neck, MY blood, MY LIFE on this altar, because it was MY SIN that caused the SEPARATION between me and God, that must now be DEALT with.
Which brings us to that SECOND half of the point: “PROPITIATION”. A “propitiation” is literally something that appeases God’s holy, righteous WRATH against sin. And v4 says: “[the animal, this sacrifice] shall be accepted for him [the offerer] to make atonement for him.”
What IS a sacrifice? Here’s your 3-min crash course summary [adapted from DuVal, “Hebrews 9”, 2023]
The Bible says that God created us - created EVERYTHING - for His glory. You and I were made for relationship with God, to WORSHIP Him, to bring Him honor and praise in ALL of our words and thoughts and actions - the Bible says, “even if you EAT or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31). God deserves our whole heart, mind, soul and strength; he deserves it ALL - our entire LIVES surrendered back to Him in humble obedience and faith. He is worthy of nothing less.
The PROBLEM is that you and I actually GIVE him FAR less, don’t we? How many of us this morning can say, “I lived 100%, entirely sold OUT for GOD this past week”?
NONE of us. The Bible says, “We have ALL fallen SHORT of the glory of God”, of actually bringing God the full GLORY He is due.
And the Bible calls this “SIN”. And it says, “the WAGES of sin” - what our sin EARNS us - “is DEATH”. God warned Adam and Eve: “Don’t eat the fruit from THAT tree, cuz if you DO, on that very DAY, you will surely DIE!
And DID they die? Well, yes and no. God’s not a liar, so in ONE sense, Adam and Eve DID die. Spiritually, the moment they took that bite, they became separated from perfect relationship with God. But instead of striking them dead PHYSICALLY too, letting Adam & Eve suffer the just punishment for their sin, the Bible says, “God clothed them in ANIMAL skins” (Gen 3:21). God designated an ANIMAL to die in their place; the first ever sacrifice.
We owe God EVERYTHING. We give him LESS than that, LESS than our whole LIVES. And so each of us has incurred a DEBT - a life debt - and God, in his MERCY, provided a means by which we could REPAY our debt - make UP the gap, so to speak; life for life, DEATH… for death. Sin brings death - either MINE, or this animal’s, in my place, thanks to God’s mercy.
Later in Leviticus, ch17, God will declare: “the life of the [animal] is in [its] blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement [repayment] for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the [animal’s] life.” (Lev 17:11)
So sacrifice is the way we repay our life debt to God by offering another life in our place, something else’s BLOOD instead of my own. And the reason that is REQUIRED is because God is perfectly HOLY AND perfectly JUST; He cannot - God WILL not - simply turn a blind eye to sin. God made it CLEAR, with every single OT sacrifice, just how SERIOUSLY He takes our sin: Sin is DEADLY.
So, for thousands of years, MILLIONS of animals were slaughtered, so that thousands of Israelites could repay their life debt to God, under this old covenant, the old Levitical sacrificial system.
Which brings us to the fourth and FINAL big picture thing we see need to see about Leviticus here: We were…
Once separated FROM God…
Now sanctified BY God…
Through sacrifices TO God…
#4- For SERVICE OF God. (1:3-17)
Leviticus just continues EXODUS’ theme; remember our subtitle for THAT series? “Freed to Follow”.
Now in Leviticus, we are SANCTIFIED to SERVE.
And I’m running short on time, so I’ll be QUICK with these last four sub-points, cuz we’re gonna see ALL of them restated again and again all throughout Leviticus, in the weeks to come. But quickly…
Notice FIRST: 1) This offering is a PORTRAYAL. (i.e., a SYMBOL):
God deserves our WHOLE selves, our whole LIVES, right? Well, that’s exactly what this sacrifice - the whole burnt offering - was intended to DEPICT! It was the ONLY sacrifice that “belonged completely to God. No portion of the animal was consumed by priests or worshipers; rather, the animal was consumed [entirely] on the altar. Thus it signified both complete surrender to God by the offer and complete acceptance by God of the worshiper who brought it.” [ref?]
Geoffrey Harper notes (65-6): the whole burnt offering “symbolizes our willingness to devote our entire existence to the service of God… Yahweh is worthy of supreme devotion… This [sacrifice] portrayed one’s reasonable response of worship and symbolizes the wholehearted giving of oneself to God.”
2) Notice though: the offering was to be PERSONAL yet also PRIEST-MEDIATED.
According to v5 “he [the OFFERER] shall kill the bull… but Aaron's sons the priests shall bring the blood” and sprinkle it.
What’s the point? There’s no room for PASSIVITY in our worship and devotion to God - we must be ACTIVE (whole heart, mind, soul & strength!) - and YET, we must ALSO remember that on our OWN, friends: even our BEST isn’t good enough for a truly perfect God. We need a MEDIATOR. A GO-between.
And we’ll talk a LOT more about this idea of “priestly intercession” in the weeks to come…
But 3) this offering was also PRACTICAL:
There was a REAL, felt COST associated with giving up your best bull, your best goat or sheep, to GOD. That meant productivity LOST, breeding weakened.
And yet, it was a TANGIBLE way of demonstrating one’s LOVE for God. In the NT, James says, “You claim to belong to God; PROVE it with your ACTIONS.”
So Romans 12:1 calls us “to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship.”
If you read Leviticus and think, “This is irrelevant now because there ARE no more sacrifices” - that is NOT what the Bible teaches. According to the NT, WE are sacrifices! Our LIVES are to be “whole burnt offerings”, surrendered back to God as our “holy and acceptable”, SPIRITUAL worship.
I believe that over the next 3 months, SOMEONE here is going to give up their current life of SIN, and dedicate their life to JESUS, as a result of studying LEVITICUS.
Someone’s gonna finally quit PORN.
Someones’ gonna finally break up with her non-Christian BOYFRIEND.
Someone’s gonna finally share the GOSPEL with that family member, who the Holy Spirit’s been BUGGING you about for YEARS!
God wants to use Leviticus in PRACTICAL ways to “consecrate” our lives - to “set us apart” - for service to HIM.
But lastly, and MOST importantly, if you forget EVERYTHING else, you need to see that 4) These offerings are a PICTURE… A Prefiguring… a Pointing ahead to our GREATER sacrifice who was to come: JESUS!
I love the analogy Sklar uses; he explains (50): “The book of Leviticus makes clear that sacrificial atonement leads to the sinner being forgiven (4:20,26; 5:10; etc.). The book of Hebrews, however, clearly states that “it is IMPOSSIBLE for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (10:4, 11). How are these to be reconciled?
Atoning sacrifice in the OT may be compared to writing a check. The purpose of the check was to cover the debt of sin. The form of the check was an animal sacrifice, whose lifeblood was given in place of the sinner’s (Lev 17:11). The LORD in his grace accepted the check and declared the debt paid… But the Lord did not cash the check. In the grand scheme of things, the lifeblood of an animal could NEVER fully ransom the lifeblood of a human. To return to the analogy, the check would have BOUNCED… So why did the LORD accept it as payment? Because he knew that one day money would be placed in the account to cover the debt; namely, when Jesus gave his lifeblood as the perfect and final ransom for sinners.”
“Every priest stood daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same old sacrifices, which could never take away sins. 12 But when Christ[b] had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God… For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” (Heb 10:11-14)
THAT is what Leviticus is all about. And it is OUR story, Church. It’s the story of the GOSPEL - that while we were once sinners… Jesus DIED to sanctify us once and for all… through HIS sacrifice… that we might NOW serve Him.