Burnt offerings, while not uncommon to Israel, had special meaning and application for the Israelites as dictated by God. As stated in a previous post, this was one of the most common types of sacrifices, and they already had some understanding about this type of sacrifice. So, what did they understand? They were able to draw upon the experience from several more notable ancestors.

From Noah’s burnt offering experience (Gn 8:20-22), Israelites saw that the burnt offering was a means of avoiding God’s wrath and of obtaining God’s favor. God’s blessing did not come from their good deeds, but by their burnt offering, i.e., their pledge and dedication to God. From Abraham, willing to offer up Isaac as a burnt offering (Gn 22), the Israelites understood the promise of the Abrahamic Covenant (Gn. 12:1-3) involved the death and resurrection of one of Abraham’s offspring. The ram Abraham offered died in the place of Isaac – a picture of what was to occur in their future when Christ, their Messiah, would come. While the second point is very clear to us, it likely was not to the Israelites of that day. Yet, they clearly understood the first point.

So, what does all of this mean for us today? We need to understand and recognize that Christ was the fulfillment of the burnt offering these Israelites made. Several scriptures point to this fact: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29); Christ was the final and complete archetype as He died “once for all” (Hb 9:12, 26; 10:10). Yet, faith is still the requirement. The burnt offering symbolized the Old Testament saint’s faith in God’s provision for his sins, and for his access to God. The burnt offering symbolized the Old Testament saint’s faith in God, and his intention to love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love his neighbor as himself (Dt 6:5).

This type of offering is important for us to understand as it will also be a part of our future once Christ returns. A burnt offering will be made every morning on the altar by the priests (Ek 46:13). People of the land (likely meaning Israel) will provide a percentage of their flocks to the Prince for burnt offerings and other offerings (Ek 45:15-16). The Prince will offer burnt offerings on New Moons, Sabbaths, and Feasts (Ek 45:17). People throughout the world who accept the Lord as the Hope of their future will be brought to him as an offering (Is 66:20), likely symbolically representative of a burnt offering.

Yet, in spite of all of the regulations around the sacrifice, it was never about the act of the sacrifice itself: “With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Mi 6:6-8).

So, what is our sacrifice today? Consider this verse: “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Hb 13:15-16).

Let’s summarize what we have learned about the burnt offering:

It was for man’s depravity (his sinful state). This sacrifice was almost always needed in order to approach God for any reason. We can only approach God because of Christ becoming our burnt offering to offer himself for our depravity.

It was a principle of particularity. God was very particular in how man would approach Him. We can only come to God through Jesus Christ: Jesus answered, “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. Most self-help books tell how a person should accept themselves, while the burnt offering was all about making a person right with God. Scripture states it is a better goal to hear, “Well done my good and faithful servant” (Mt 25:21).

It was a principle of atonement through the shedding of blood. The sinful state of man requires the shedding of innocent blood: without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Hb 9:22). Why blood? Maybe because God breathed into man a breath of life (Gn 2:7). Oxygen is what we breathe, and blood cells carry the oxygen; so, blood represented life. Perhaps that is why eating blood was prohibited (Lv 17:10).

It was a principle of identification. The one making the offering had to identify with the animal, understand he was bringing his best to represent him, 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.

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 (Ro 12:1-2).

Hopefully, you see that the acts of these ancient Israelites have meaning for us today. Certainly, we can offer a sacrifice of praise to the One who has bestowed life to us and given us an eternal hope. Can you do that today?

A major resource for this post and others like it regarding Leviticus was the research done by Bob Deffinbaugh posted on Bible.org.

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

The first offering we come to in Leviticus is the burnt offering. Yet, this is not the first time we see such an offering in the Bible. It actually originated in Genesis and was first mentioned by Noah when he offered burnt offerings of clean animals (Gn 8:20). Yet, this offering was likely first shown to Adam, since their clothes came from animals (Gn 3:21) which were likely from the animal hides from a burnt offering as the animal skin was the only thing not consumed in a burnt offering (Lv 7:8).

There are other places where burnt offerings are mentioned prior to Leviticus: Abraham was told to offer Isaac as a burnt offering (Gn 22); Moses told Pharaoh that the Israelites needed to go into the desert to offer burnt offerings to God (Ex 10:25-26); Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, offered a burnt offering to God (Ex 18); when the Israelites made a golden calf, they also offered burnt offerings (Ex 32).

We see, then, that burnt offerings were not necessarily a new offering God commanded to Israel. Yet, he did add His requirements to them. It could be offered in two ways: a personalized offering by an individual (Lv 1:2), and only males were allowed to make this offering—likely on behalf of their whole family (Jb 1:5); or as an offering for the community as a whole and done on their behalf by the priest. A burnt offering was made on behalf of the congregation in the morning and in the evening (Ex 29:38-42; Nu 28:3, 6; 2Ch 2:4). An additional burnt offering was offered every Sabbath (Nu 28:9-10), at the beginning of each month (i.e., every new moon; Nu 28:11), at the celebration of Passover on the 14th day of the 1st month (Nu 28:16), along with the grain offering at the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot; Nu 28:26) and offered on the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah; Nu 29:1).

Burnt offerings were also often offered in conjunction with other sacrifices: guilt offering (Lv 5:7, 10, 17-18); sin offering (Lv 5:7; 6:25; 9:2-3, 7; 12:6, 8); freewill offering (Lv 22:18), with the sheaf offering at Feast of Firstfruits (Lv 23:12), and with the new grain offering on Shavuot (Lv 23:15-22). It was also required for various cleansing rituals: cleansing of a woman’s uncleanness as a result of child-bearing (sin and burnt offering required; Lv 12:6-8); cleansing of a leper (Lv 14:19-20); cleansing of a man with a discharge (with a sin offering; Lv 15:14-15); cleansing of a woman with an abnormal discharge (with a sin offering; Lv 15:30); cleansing of a Nazarite who was unintentionally defiled by contact with a dead body (Nu 6:11, 14); purification of the congregations when the congregation unwittingly failed to observe one of God’s commands, and was thereby defiled (Nu 15:22-26); purification and consecration of Aaron (Lv 16:3, 5, 24) as well as all the Levites (Nu 8:12).

One of the unique characteristics about this offering was that it was totally consumed. Other offerings allowed either the priest or the one making the offering to partake of the offering, but not this one. As stated previously, only the hide could be kept by the priest (Lv 7:8).

It is interesting that the word for offering in Hebrew was “corban” (Lv 1:2). This gives a little insight into the corruption of the New Testament priests when they allowed and/or encouraged people to “corbanize” their possessions (Mk 7:11). They were essentially saying a person’s possessions were a burnt offering to the Lord and were, therefore, more important than taking care of their family. This practice went again part of God’s commandments to Israel where they were commanded to honor their father and mother (Ex 20:12; Lv 19:3; Dt 5:16).

God also expected His instructions about burnt offerings to be taken seriously. Not taking a burnt offering or sacrifice to the tabernacle would lead to a person no longer having an inheritance (Lv 17:9). Nadab and Abihu, priests and sons of Aaron, were killed for not following sacrificial protocol (Lv 10).

Yet, God also considered the ability of a person or family in what they were able to offer. God allowed three types of animals to be offered as a burnt offering: offerings from the herd (i.e., bull; Lv 1:3-9); offerings from the flock (a sheep or a goat; Lv 1:10-13); offerings of birds (turtledoves or pigeons; Lv 1:14-17). Being poor was a basis for reduction in sacrifice demanded by God (Lv 14:21-22, 31).

Still, God did have specific requirements around these animals to be used as a burnt offering. The animal had to be of the highest quality. Unless a bird was offered, the animal from the herd or flock had to be male, and the animal had to be young (i.e., it was at its prime reproductive status). This made the one giving the offering dependent upon God for further provision and prosperity.

The offering was a very personal experience. The one providing the offering laid his hand on the head of the animal—symbolically transferring sins to the animal, not specific sins, but sinfulness in general. The one providing the offering was also the one who killed the animal. This was very up close and personal, wasn’t it? The priest then took the blood and sprinkled it before the altar and prepared the animal for sacrifice. This offering served as the atonement for the overall sinful state of the person/family/community.

In a future post we’ll consider what the Israelites really understood about this sacrifice and what it means for us today. So, stay tuned!

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens