Pages

Friday 24 December 2010

Leviticus 1 - Burnt offerings

Leviticus is the third book of the Pentateuch and derives its name from Septuagint (Greek translation of the OT). The Hebrew title is "And he called", from the opening line of the book. The book is really about sacrifice and holiness. It is difficult for us to appreciate it as our natural reaction to much of it is "what's all this about", but we will do our best.
The first seven chapters deal with various offerings: burnt, grain, fellowship, sin and guilt. In reading this we should see how it points forward to the one true sacrifice, Jesus Christ.
The first offering dealt with is the burnt offering. Note that all these instructions came from the Lord. Moses met with God in the tent of meeting, and what we read here are some of the things that God told him. We do well to remember that it was God who told Moses all this stuff, so there must be something in it.
The burnt offering made Moses acceptable to God. He had to lay his hand on the head of the animal, ie there has to be a personal identification with the sacrifice. In the same way we must identify with Christ's sacrifice on the cross if we are to benefit from it, we need to believe. The animal was to be completely burnt up, ie it was a complete sacrifice.
The sacrifice was to be without defect. This points forward to the perfect sacrifice of Christ.

No comments:

Post a Comment