“The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, ‘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. 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. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. 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. 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.” (v1-5,9b)
Leviticus tells us a great deal about God’s laws for His people. Right out of the gate, we find out about the procedures for sin offerings. Grisly details aside, God is sovereign, and sin is an abomination, so a price has to be paid for it. Before Jesus became the final sin offering, God instituted another method of atonement – animal sacrifice. This is not the first or last time animal sacrifices are mentioned – it goes all the way back to Gen 3:21 where God kills an animal to clothe Adam and Eve, which was the first symbol of blood being shed for the atonement of sin.
There are too many aspects of sin sacrifice to cover them all in detail, so here are some key points:
– the offering had to be without blemish (you can’t atone for imperfection [sin] with more imperfection) and parts of it had to be washed/cleansed to make it even more pure
– through prayer and the laying of hands to the creature, the sin symbolically passed from the person to the creature, and the creature died for that sin in place of the person
– though the priests did the majority of dirty work in preparing the animal, the person making the offering had to personally perform the death blow, so they would understand the price that had to be paid for their sin
– the burnt offering gave a pleasing aroma to the Lord, not because burnt flesh smells good, but because the price of the sin had been paid and His wrath for that sin was sated (I’d be pleased too if I didn’t have to punish someone for what they did)
– the sin atonement process, like all of God’s processes, was very specific and had to be followed, meaning people were not to come up with their own solution/process to sin, they had to follow God’s or it would not satisfy His wrath, it would incur more wrath because failing to follow God’s procedure would be more disobedience (sin)
Every single sin offering criteria was ultimately met in Jesus – He was without blemish (sinless), took the punishment for our sin, was killed by our hands and His sacrifice appeased God’s wrath which opened the door for abundant grace and mercy.
One more thing I’ll mention is the phrase “before the Lord”. That same phrase is used three times in this chapter alone, and more than 60 times in the book of Leviticus – more times than any other book of the Bible. Clearly God was making a point that His people were being held accountable directly to Him – everything we do is “before the Lord”. Whether we’re sinning or atoning for sin, worshiping or avoiding God, at home or far from home, working or playing, we do and say all things “before the Lord”. We are directly accountable to God for everything, and He wants His people to remember that.
The Lord not only sees what we do, He sees the heart behind it. If we seek to only please/appease the world, chances are good we’re not pleasing God. If we’re pleasing God, odds are good we’re not pleasing the world (our culture is pretty broken), but that’s okay. The Bible suggests (paraphrasing here) that’s it far better to love God and be hated by the world, than to love the world and be hated by God. Everything that Jesus said and did was not only “before the Lord”, it was also “for the Lord” – He was hated and killed by the world, but He loved God and God loved Him so much He was raised from the dead after dying for the world.
My desire and challenge for each of us is to not only be “before the Lord”, but whatever we do, do with our entire heart “for the Lord” and not for the world (Col 3:23 par).
Father God, we praise You O Lord God Almighty. Father, we realize we sinned against You, and that sin required our life in return. Thank you for providing an alternative sacrifice to atone for our sin – our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you for the reminder that You are to be respected and honored in all that we say and do – please remind and enable us to do all things not only before You, but also unto You, for Your service. Please grant us the strength to serve You, for we are weak and forgetful. Amen.
~ Conqueror in Training