Sermon - AudioLev 1-4 - Audio
Lev 1-4 - Daily Reading
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The book of Leviticus as a chapter in the master story of the Bible.
In the Old Covenant, God’s salvation focused on a covenant nation that God called to be obedient to him as Shepherd and King. Leviticus pictures the system of practices and sacrifices by which God provided a path to holiness and atonement for his wayward people. Further, underlying Leviticus is a biblical principle known as typology. This means that OT characters, events, practices, and sacrifices often symbolize something for which Christ was God’s chosen fulfillment from the very beginning of his plan of salvation. In particular, the system of offerings and sacrifices and the Day of Atonement point to the life that Jesus offered in obedience to God and the death that he died as the atonement for his people’s sin. From the ESV Literary Bible
1.1: “bring an offering to the LORD” The NIV uses LORD as a way of indicating God’s covenant name, Yahweh. As Leviticus opens Yahweh’s first command is that sacrifices be made only to him and no other.
1.1ff while other nations offer sacrifices, Israel is unique in that the sacrifices offered to God depend on God. Other cultures could manipulate their gods through sacrifices, Israel could never manipulate Yahweh.
1.2: God makes clear that he is the one who prescribes how he is to be worshipped. The people do not get input.
1.2: “an offering to the LORD” While other cultures of Israel’s day also practiced sacrifice, Israel was the only one where the common people (those who were not priests) were allowed to approach God in the sacrificial rite. Also, Israel was the only nation where the people knew what went on in the most holy places of the temple they could not access. Other nations held secret rituals in those places, God reveals to his people all that is going on in worship
1.4: To lay your hands on the head of the animal transfers your sin to that animal as your representative before God.
1.9: “an aroma pleasing” so turning back God’s anger. Ephesians 5.2 says, …and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
2.1ff: The grain offering or minha in Hebrew is an offering which in the political world of the day means to pay tribute to a superior or ruler. The grain offering, then, is a symbol proclaiming God is Lord and you live under his lordship. This type of offering was to be offered regularly.
2.13: Salt is a symbol that God’s covenant is an everlasting covenant. Each time the offering was salted it reminded the people of this everlasting covenant.
Leviticus 3
The “Fellowship” offering is an offering of joy. A person brings it when he or she desires to express their thankfulness for God’s covenant faithfulness. As part of this expression of thankfulness they join with God in a covenant feast.
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3.3: “all the fat…” The parts that God receives in the celebration of this festive meal are the best parts of the animal. These parts are considered too good for mortals, so Yahweh is given them.
Leviticus 4
Leviticus 4 covers the unintentional sins of individuals and the community. God’s take is that such sin makes a person guilty, but also, it pollutes the “sanctuary” i.e. the tabernacle making it unfit for God’s special presence. Both the person and the tabernacle must be cleansed. This idea that not only a person, but a place/space must be cleansed may seem odd to us at first, but we know that there are places which seem to be so filled with evil that special actions are taken to make them habitable again (ground zero in New York being one example). Some of these places are so filled with evil that it seems they will never be habitable again—they can only stand as monuments (e.g. Auschwitz).
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4.3-12: Notice the amount of physical work that has to be done to deal with sin. It is interesting to note that Jesus’ death on the cross also carried a heavy physical price to bring about forgiveness. Also note that in verse 12 the idea of taking things outside the camp. Compare that to Hebrews 13.The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
6 comments:
Interesting thought from 2 Cor 2:15-16 pertaining to Lev 1:9, 13
"For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?"
We are now the aroma of Christ to God! I think this is also why Paul continually refers to Christians as being "sacrifices." Rom 12:1, Heb 13:15-16, 2 Cor 1:5. People will see our sacrifice and smell the aroma of Christ, and some will come to accept the gospel through this and others will not. Either way, the aroma of our sacrifice for the gospel is pleasing to God.
Of course the only reason why this our aroma is pleasing to God is because of what Christ has already done...Can't ever forget that! 2 Cor 2:14, and...
"And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts,and write them on their minds,” then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin." Hebrews 10:11-18
These sacrifices are described as a "pleasing aroma" to God. By any standard today, we would call them a "stinking mess". Burning flesh and fat do not smell good. I must assume that even when it smells bad, the act of acknowledging God and giving to him is pleasing to him.
I guess it's the same today. Even though we are a stinking mess our offering of ourselves to God is just what He has been waiting for. Dale
I always thank God for dying for my sins and sacrificing His life so that we may live. I just never thought of it as Him paying the price so that we don't have to sacrifice animals to him. Can you imagine living under the old covenant and everytime you sinned having to sacrifice an animal to God. It would be obvious to others as we carry our bull to be slaughtered. Wow you would think that would keep you from commiting the same sin. If we did have consequences like that it seems that more of us would try harder to do what's right. God asks us to "offer our bodies as living sacrifices, Holy and pleasing to him". Rom 12: we should really take this seriously!
See the following verses for thoughts on the law: Rom. 6:14; 7:1-14; Gal. 3:10-13, 24-25; 4:21; 5:1, 13; 2 Cor. 3:7-18)
and...
Read Romans 8 and enjoy the goodness found there :)
Just a note on the smell--they burned incense constantly at the tabernacle and later at the temple to deal with the smell. The pleasing aroma, I take it was not due to the actual smell, but the willingness of the people to confess their sins and to give their best to God. It is worth remembering that Jesus himself is seen as a fragrant offering to God. Paul writes in Ephesians, 1Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
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