Reading
Leviticus 1:1-14, 6:8-13
Introduction: Questions
Children ask interesting questions, don’t they? The most frequent and most annoying one is: Why?
Adults often don’t know the right answer or choose not to give the right answer.
- Where do babies come from? Apparently, I was found under a gooseberry bush!
- Why are frogs green? Er… Ask your father.
- Where does God live?
We might answer that one with, “God lives in Heaven.” But the Israelites had a different answer. They would say, he lives in that big tent, just over there.
Can I go and see him now? NOOoooo!!!!
As Luke so brilliantly illustrated for us last week, having God live next door is not without its problems. He’s not like us. We’re sinful and rebellious, he’s holy; so holy that no-one could look at him and live. Like CS Lewis’s Aslan in ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’, he isn’t safe—but he is good.
When we get older we have a different set of questions. What’s life all about? What am I here for? Is there any purpose or meaning?
The Westminster Shorter Catechism puts the question like this: What is the chief end of man?
The answer it gives is: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
The answer’s a general summary of this whole book. We were made by God and for God; he desires to live among us, and he wants us to live in joyful communion with him. But how is that possible?
Sacrifices and Offerings
As we’ve journeyed with the Israelites through Exodus, we’ve seen part of the unfolding story of God working to bring about the fulfilment of his great desires.
Leviticus starts as Exodus ended. The glory of the LORD has filled the tabernacle and Moses, who’s had many personal encounters with God—but has never seen his glory—dared not enter the tent. How can the Israelites enjoy the presence of God?
From inside the tent God explains to Moses how to overcome the obstacles. We’re introduced to the idea of sacrifices and offerings.
Some of the offerings strike our modern minds as strange if not downright horrible but these things weren’t alien to the people of the day. People sacrificed to their gods to induce favourable behaviour from them: ‘I’ve done this for you, now you do that for me.’ Their sacrifices were very much a transactional affair.
The five offerings introduced here are entirely relational in their purpose; none of them is an attempt to twist God’s arm.
- God has already rescued his people.
- He’s made himself known to them in spectacular ways.
- He’s already committed to their well-being.
- He’s made his dwelling among them.
These offerings show:
- how the people can express their devotion to God,
- how to put their relationship with God right when things go wrong,
- and how they can enjoy his presence.
You’ll be relieved to hear that we won’t be looking at all the offerings in detail, or we’d be here for a very long time! We’ll look at just one of them and skim the rest.
We have:
There were no animals involved in this one. The main component was fine flour, which could be offered uncooked or baked in various forms along with oil, incense and salt, but never with yeast or honey.
Part was offered on the altar, along with the oil, salt and incense. The rest belonged to the priests.
This one did involve animal sacrifice, and there are specific instructions on what animals can be used, how the offering was to be handled, and what accompaniments were needed.
Specific parts of the animal were to be burnt on the altar; certain parts were to be given to the priest for food, and the rest was to be eaten and shared with people from the community, near the tent of meeting.
It was like sharing a celebratory meal with God.
All of these offerings could be brought by anyone and were entirely voluntary.
The last two are obligatory acts of atonement. There’s:
The guilt offering that dealt with serious violations of God’s holy things. It has a lot in common with the sin offering but also included an element of restitution for wrongs done to others.
The sin offering, which we’ll look at more closely.
The Sin Offering
Sin always causes a rift in our relationship with God. When we sin, we try to hide it from God and to hide it from others. The ultimate penalty for sin is death.
The sin offering provides atonement, a remedy for the offence, and removes the rift to restore the relationship.
(4:2) It’s for ‘When anyone sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands – ’
To try and get a handle on what ‘unintentional’ means, Bible commentators look closely at the words used in the original language. They come up with a couple of ideas:
- inadvertant sin
- we can be in ignorance of the law
- we can lack awareness of the offensive nature of sin
- going astray, wandering
- human weakness
- I know this is wrong but…
- human frailty
- some trauma makes you take leave of your senses
The ritual of the sin offering is similar to what we read about the burnt offering. But there were some differences, depending on who was bringing the offering—the sin of some people has wider consequences.
Our sin affects not just us but also the person we’ve sinned against, and it can have a knock-effect to those closest to us, and those we have responsibility for.
For example, if a someone got caught in an act of gross misconduct at work, they’d lose their job, their livelihood, quite possibly their pension; they could even go to prison. Their family would suffer because of their sin.
And,
- If you were a priest, your sin would be an offence to the holy places in the Tabernacle, and how could you then speak on God’s behalf to the people, or to God on behalf of the people.
- If you were a leader in the community, your sin would’ve had consequences for the people you were responsible for. Just think of the notable Christian leaders in recent times whose sins have come to light, and the impact that’s had on their congregations.
- If the whole community went astray, that’s clearly more serious than the sin of just one person.
In dealing with your sin, humility is needed. You’d have to recognise that you’ve broken God’s law and that you can’t live anywhere near the presence of God without a remedy. But God, who loves you, has graciously prescribed a remedy: the sin offering. Let’s see what that looks like.
The Ritual
First of all, there’s the selection of the animal to be sacrificed.
- If you’re a priest, or the whole community has sinned, the victim must be a young bull.
- If you’re a leader, a male goat.
- If you’re an ordinary member of the community, either a female goat or a female lamb.
There are some exceptions. If you were poor and couldn’t afford a lamb, you could bring two young pigeons. The blood of one would be used as your sin offering and the other would be burnt on the altar.
And if you were so poor you couldn’t afford that, you could bring about 3.5 lb of finest flour.
No-one is excused the cost of the offering, but these exceptions mean that no-one is denied the opportunity for atonement and forgiveness.
You have to bring the best you can to God, so you carefully choose the appropriate animal, making sure it’s without blemish or defect.
You lead the animal to the tent of meeting. At the entrance, you put your hand on its head to signify that you’re presenting it to the LORD as your sin offering. In essence, you lay your sin on the head of the animal. If you won’t bring a sin offering—on your own head be it!
You might like to think that the priest would take over at this point, but no. Your next act is to take a knife and to slit its throat: it bears your sin and it’s life is given in place of yours.
It’s a horrible image, but it highlights the offensiveness of sin and the reality of its penalty.
Now the priest steps in and collects the gushing blood in a bowl and takes it into the tent.
If the priest were making this offering for his own sin or dealing with the collective sin of the people, he would first dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times on the curtain that separates the holy place where he’s standing from the holiest place where God lives.
Then he would dip his finger again and put blood on the four corners of the altar in the holy place where incense was burnt. He’s a priest. He has regular access to these holier places, and he has to preserve them against any desecration.
In all cases, he would dip his finger in the blood, and put some of it on each of the horns of the altar of burnt offerings just outside the tent. The rest, he pours out at the base of the altar.
The animal’s blood stands in for your blood; for the Hebrew, the life was in the blood.
Meanwhile, your next job is to butcher the animal. You have to remove all the visceral fat, the kidneys and the liver, the fat around the tail. You have to wash all this: you can’t offer God unclean things, and it reminds you that what God really wants from you is cleanness in your inner being.
The priest would then arrange these washed parts on the altar and make sure they’re burnt completely.
If you think back to our reading, you’ll recall that the fire on this altar was never to be allowed to go out. And that reminds you that God stands always ready to receive your offering as atonement and to forgive you. God doesn’t want to lose you!
The rest of the animal becomes food for the priests, so it’s not been just a wasteful exercise in blood-letting. The only exception to this is for bulls offered for the sin of a priest or the collective sin of the people: the remains of that animal are to be taken to a ceremonially clean place outside the camp and burnt in a wood fire on the ash heap. Why? Because nobody can expect to profit from their sin.
Your offering now complete, you’ll remember the LORD’s words of assurance repeated multiple times about this offering: “In this way the priest will make atonement for them for the sin they have committed, and they will be forgiven.”
Leviticus is the first time in scripture where it’s made explicit that your sin can be atoned for through the ritual sacrifice of an animal. The theological term is substitutional atonement.
A Better Sacrifice
What’s set down in Leviticus is important for the Israelites of the day but really these things are only pointers to a greater, better sacrifice that’s hinted at all through the Bible.
Imagine the edge of the platform is a timeline for the history of the world.
So this bit here might be the Garden of Eden, but this is not where the story begins.
[Leave the room.]
The story begins out here. You can’t see me because I’ve left the realm of time and space. I’m standing in Eternity.
Peter, writing in the New Testament, says,
“18For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”
[Enter the room, stand at LHS.]
Before God created the world, he already knew we’d mess it up. Before any of us existed, before any of our sins had been committed, he chose his sacrificial lamb, God the Son, without blemish or defect, who would one day offer himself, his life for ours, his blood for ours.
And so God created the world. He created human beings in his own likeness. For a while, we don’t know how long, all was well. Adam and Eve enjoyed the presence of God who walked with them in the cool of the evening.
[Step right].
Then—disaster! Satan, allegorically called the serpent, tempted them and they disobeyed God.
- They discovered they were naked.
- They tried to hide from God but that didn’t work.
- They tried to make coverings for themselves from leaves but that wasn’t good enough.
- They were ejected from the presence of God before the damage got worse, they couldn’t remain in intimate contact with God.
But God made them coverings from animal skins to cover their nakedness. Blood was shed, pointing forward to the real sacrifice that would be made thousands of years later to cover our shame.
[Step right. 4 or 500 years]
God still wants to be with people. He calls Abraham, promises him the world, but Abraham has no heir. So God gives him a son, Isaac.
God tests Abraham’s devotion. ‘I want you to sacrifice your only son, Isaac, whom you love.’ Human sacrifice may not have been unheard of in Abraham’s time but he may have been surprised that his God asked for it!
Abraham and Isaac go of to make the sacrifice. Isaac, not knowing what’s going on, says, “We’ve got fire and wood but where’s the lamb?”
Abraham replies, “God himself will provide the lamb.”
Just as he’s about to kill Isaac, God stops him, and there in a thicket is a ram caught by its horns. Abraham offers that in place of Isaac, the ram’s life for his.
This points forward to the time when God’s only Son, whom he loves, would offer himself in the place of all of us.
[Step right. ~ 600 years]
We come to the Passover when God rescued Abraham’s descendants from Egypt. The Passover lamb died in place of the Israelite first-born sons.
This points forward to the time when God’s firstborn would die in our place to rescue us from the slavery of sin.
[Step right.]
In Leviticus, we have the sin offering we’ve thought about, pointing forward to the sacrifice of God’s chosen Lamb in a time yet to come.
[Step right. ~ 800 years.]
The Prophet Isaiah writes about a mysterious servant:
53 5But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
And
7... he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, …
Isaiah points forward to God’s lamb who would one day be slaughtered for the sins of his people, bearing their punishment.
[Step right. ~700 years]
Enter John the Baptist, who,
(John 1:29) … saw Jesus coming towards him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'
[Step right.]
A few short years pass and we come to Calvary. Jesus has been arrested, tried, beaten. A crown of vicious thorns has been smashed onto his head.
It makes me think of the hand being laid on the head of the animal in Leviticus. But for Jesus, it’s the hands and the sins of all who will come to him in faith. My hand. Your hand. My sins. Your sins. How could we do that to him?! And yet …
He’s nailed to a cross and left to die outside the city, his blood staining the wood.
He is not just our sacrificial lamb. He is also our high priest. He enters into the heavenly realms with his own blood, and remembering the words from Leviticus, “In this way [our high] priest [made] atonement for [us] for [every] sin [we’ve] committed [or ever will commit], and [we are] forgiven.”
[Step right.]
And that’s not the end of the story! Paul writes in 2 Cor. That “… God was reconciling himself to the world in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.” God still wants to live with people.
Jesus rises from the dead—sin and death are defeated—and God sends his Holy Spirit to dwell in each and every believer as “a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.”
[Step right.]
And the best is yet to come! “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Beyond the wall there’s an eternal realm where we’ll fully realise our chief end: to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
[Centre stage]
The best is yet to come but we can begin getting to know God here and now. As Paul writes, “… Now [we] know in part; then [we] shall know fully, even as [we] are fully known.”
Meanwhile, our response to all he’s done for us, as Paul tells us, is to “offer [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.”
This is our true worship – to live our lives in holiness because our God is holy, to find our true purpose in living for him.
I wonder,
- is there someone here caught in a sin, feeling ashamed or unworthy?
- or, you believe, but without assurance that your sins are really forgiven?
Charles Wesley expressed truth powerfully in his famous hymn, O for a thousand tongues to sing my great redeemer's praise:
[Jesus] breaks the power of cancelled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.
See all your sins on Jesus laid:
The Lamb of God was slain,
His soul was once an offering made
For every soul of man.
Just sit in quietness for a moment reflecting on what Jesus has done for us.
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