The burnt offering was the first sacrifice mentioned in Leviticus (Lv 1:1-17). It could be offered in two ways: (1) a personalized offering by an individual with only males allowed to make this offering—likely on behalf of their whole family (e.g., Jb 1:5); or (2) as an offering for the community performed on its behalf by the priest. One of the unique characteristics of this offering was that it was totally consumed on the altar. Only the hide could be kept by the priest (Lv 7:8). Often, burnt offerings were required in conjunction with other types of sacrifices.

This type of offering was likely the offering God had Adam and Eve offer because he used the skin of the animal to make their clothing. It was the offering mentioned in Scripture by Noah (Gen. 8:20) when exiting the ark. It was frequently offered by the patriarchs long before the Mosaic Law was established. The Lord instructed Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt offering (Gen. 22:2) and would have been the offering Moses performed in the desert after leaving Egypt (Ex. 5:3). Both Jethro (Ex. 18:12), Moses’ father-in-law, and Job (Job 1:5) offered this type of sacrifice long before the giving of the Law at Sinai.

It was continually offered as a perpetual sacrifice: night and day; on major feast days; and on new moons in Israel. This was a constant reminder that they were God’s people and were devoted to him.

So, what was the reason for this type of offering? It was made for man’s depravity (his sinful state). It was needed for one to be able to approach God. Christ became our burnt offering to restore our right standing with God by allowing us to be transferred from Satan’s Kingdom (which Adam yielded to him through his rebellion in the garden) into Christ’s Kingdom. Read my post, Are We Going Backwards? for more details on this topic. It was something Old Testament saints looked toward because they went to Sheol upon death. Because of Christ being our burnt offering, we go to be with him immediately (2Co 5:8) because our trust in Christ transfers us into his Kingdom. The apostle Paul tells us in Colossians 1:13, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the Son he loves.”

The burnt offering was a principle of particularity. God, not man, dictates how we will and can approach Him. Jesus Christ said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6).

It was a principle of acceptance of God. Self-help books tell how a person should accept themselves so they can feel better about themselves and overcome their depressive state or their lack of confidence, while the burnt offering was all about making a person right with God and seeing things from his perspective. We are more likely to feel good about ourselves and feel relevant because we are working within God’s design for us. Romans 3 :10 tells us, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” We are incapable of approaching God on our own merit.

It was a principle of atonement and transfer of state through the shedding of blood. Hebrews 9:22 tells us, that without the shedding of blood there is no remission, or forgiveness, of sin. Blood represented life. One was giving life for life as one’s sins were symbolically transferred to the animal. Our sins (past, present, and future sins) were transferred onto Christ as he hung on the cross (1Pt 2:24).

It was a principle of identification. The one making the offering had to identify with the animal and symbolically transfer his sin to the animal which is then worthy of death. We, today, identify with Christ who bore our sin and died for our sin. Paul tells us in Philippians 2:6-7: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Christ identified with us in order to die for us in our place because our sins were transferred to him as he hung on the cross.

It was a principle of sacrifice. Neither the one making the offering, nor the priest benefited from this type of sacrifice. What was gained was a statement of devotion to God. We, too, are to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to him. Romans 12:1 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

The burnt offering is, therefore, a symbol of our transfer into God’s kingdom. And this was the reason it was required in conjunction with other sacrifices to show one’s rightful standing with God for God to act. This sacrifice made the other sacrifices possible.

So, once we are in his kingdom, what comes next? Join me next time and find out.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

Many people make a commitment to read through their Bible cover to cover. They do great until they reach the book of Leviticus. Then their eyes roll, and they feel they have entered the Biblical wasteland. Words couldn’t be drier and the relatability to what is being read seems nonexistent. What is the purpose of such a book and how is it even relevant to us today? Believe it or not, it is highly relevant and reveals how blessed we are to be living post Christ’s crucifixion than before. Let’s take a closer look and see if I can make Leviticus become relevant for you. You may just never see this book the same way again. Wouldn’t that be nice!

The Mosaic Law was comprised of 613 commandments dealing with moral and ethical issues. Most of these were tied, whether directly or indirectly, to some type of sacrifice. There were eight different types of sacrifices or offerings that were required for different things. Sometimes, more than one sacrifice had to be made simultaneously. Likely you realized from your reading of Leviticus that sacrifices were a big part of this book and were crucial to the everyday life of a Jewish citizen. It all seems so confusing. It was likely more comprehensible for a Jew of that day as they grew up with these requirements. But why? What was the purpose of such sacrifices and so much detail as to how they were to be done?

Well, fast forward to the New Testament. Because of Christ’s teachings, many started to think he was advocating for the Jews to abandon the Mosaic Law. Yet, he told them that was not the case. Actually, far from abandoning the Law, he had come to fulfill the Law: Jesus stated, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished” (Mt 5:17-18).

You may be thinking that if that was true, and he was such an advocate of the Mosaic Law, then why did Jesus argue with the Pharisees so much? The Pharisees were obsessed with keeping the Law, so shouldn’t that have been a common bond, a common thread, between them? Well, we need to look more closely as to what Jesus argued with them about. Their arguments were not about the Law but about Oral Traditions which the Pharisees elevated to be as binding as the Law itself. By doing so, they lost the true intent of the Torah, the Law. The Pharisees (and the Sadducees) had turned obeying the Mosaic Law into a list of dos and don’ts rather than about the condition of one’s heart. They taught that the doing was what made one righteous rather than an actual change of heart. Jesus was teaching the original intent of Torah, the Mosaic Law, was to expose the condition of one’s heart. Following the Law was to be a response of realizing one’s heart condition. The Pharisees were putting the cart before the horse, so to speak.

If we go back to Leviticus, we find there were eight different types of offerings required under the Mosaic Law. Why so many? What was their purpose? Did Jesus really fulfill all of them? How did he do that, and for what purpose was he to fulfill them?

To answer these questions, we need to look at each of these different types of sacrifices, their requirements, and what they represented. I think you’ll see that each addresses a matter of the heart. Each sacrifice was to be a response to a change in heart.

Let’s look at each of these sacrifices individually. I have covered them previously in another series of blog posts (Leviticus), but our emphasis in this discussion will be slightly different. I hope you join me as we discuss how Jesus Christ fulfilled each of these types of offerings and how each relates to our accepting him today.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

There are many who feel the Old Testament is quite passé and irrelevant for us today. Yet such a belief couldn’t be farther from the truth. Let’s go over some of these thoughts and see if we can decipher the legitimacy of the rationale behind them.

It is sometimes stated that the Old Testament is about something that happened so long ago that the stories and information have no relevance for us today. The apostle Paul had a different opinion about this: “Now these things [Old Testament teachings] occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did (1Co 10:6). So, since God does not change (Ml 3:6), then how God acted in the examples provided in the Old Testament can be used to help guide our actions today as well.

Some say that God in the Old Testament was a vengeful God and quite different from the God of love portrayed to us in the New Testament. Yet is that really true? Have you actually read why God made certain decisions he did in the Old Testament? Also, consider that the Old Testament covers things that happened over a 4000-year time span whereas the New Testament covers only a period of less than 100 years. Therefore, you would have far more examples to draw from in the Old Testament as to how God acts than you do in the New Testament. I have talked about this in more detail in a previous post (Is God a God of Wrath?). I think the bottom line is that there are eventual consequences to one’s sin and God, while longsuffering, will eventually declare a reckoning to be done. This was true of both Gentiles (e.g., he gave the Amorites 500 years before their reckoning came [Gn 15:13-16]) as well as the Israelites (e.g., both the northern kingdom of Israel [2Ki 17:6] and the southern kingdom of Judah [25:11] were taken captive by foreigners) because of their disobedience to God. This will also be true in our future as well, which some call the time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jr 30:7) or the time of the Tribulation (Mt 24:21; Rv 7:14).

Some say the Old Testament was about Israel, but the New Testament Church has replaced her within God’s plan, so the Old Testament is irrelevant for us today. But is that really the case? The apostle Paul seems to disagree with this assessment. God has not rejected Israel (Ro 11:1) and at a future date, all of Israel will be saved (Ro 11:26). God has a plan for both the nation of Israel and his Church, his bride. This is somewhat explained in a previous post (Gentiles – World View). God’s plan for us and the entire world is far greater than we can imagine and his love for all of mankind is also greater than we can imagine.

There is another point to make about the connection between the Old Testament and New Testament. There is a saying attributed to St. Augustine: The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed; the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. This is quite literally true. There are many prophecies in the Old Testament about the Jew’s coming Messiah. The New Testament reveals all these prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus Christ (see Prophecies of the Messiah).

Others argue Jesus made the Old Testament null and void at his coming. Yet Jesus stated that he did not come to abolish the Mosaic Law but to fulfill it in exact detail (Mt 5:17-18). The apostle Paul agreed with this when he said, “Christ is the culmination of the law so that here may be righteousness for everyone who believes” (Ro 10:4). Because Jesus Christ fulfilled the law, we are reconciled to God and are now declared righteous because of his actions on the cross. Jesus was everything the Mosaic Law required and fulfilled all the requirements necessary. He became the culmination of the Mosaic Law requirements.

So, you can see that the Old Testament is really important for us today just as is the New Testament. Without understanding the former we can’t truly appreciate the latter. Jesus is on every page of both the Old Testament and the New Testament, so it’s likely we need to understand how the Old Testament pointed to him and how the New Testament reveals him. We’ll be exploring this fact over the next several posts. I hope you join me.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens