Leviticus 1-3
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Leviticus 1-3
The following is Pastor Nate’s teaching transcription from Calvary Monterey’s 8/24/21 Tuesday Night Service. We apologize for any transcription inaccuracies.
Leviticus 1 - The Burnt Offering
Leviticus chapter 1, verse 1 says, “The Lord called Moses. And spoke to him from the tent of meetings saying speak to the people of Israel and say to them when anyone of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock.” And so begins our study of the Book of Leviticus.
Now in a sense, you could say that it took one night for God to get the people of Israel out of Egypt but that it would take a lifetime for God to get Egypt out of the heart of the people of Israel. And really, that's what the book of Leviticus is about. God giving to the people of Israel the template or instructions for the worship that would happen in the Tabernacle that they just built. If you've followed along with us in our study of the Book of Exodus, you saw Moses receive on the mountaintop, the command of God and the instructions from God specifically on how to build the Tabernacle and also the instructions on the priesthood itself that would serve inside of the Tabernacle along with the instruments that would populate the Tabernacle.
But now in Leviticus, we learn specifically how the instruments, how the priests, and how the Tabernacle would be used in order for the people of Israel to approach God. And God would use this Tabernacle and the sacrifices and the priesthood and the instruments inside the Tabernacle to pull the customs and habits of Egypt out of the heart of His people. So really, the Book of Leviticus is a book about the separation of God's people.
Introduction
Now Leviticus to me, is a wonderful book though of course, it can be difficult for a modern Christian to study. For many modern believers, it's a dull book because it lacks very much narrative. There's a couple of passages where a story or an episode is told, but for the most part, we have laws and customs and ceremonies laid out for the people. It's the handbook that the Levitical Priesthood would use or refer to worship the Lord. And so for many modern Christians, the lack of narrative is dull for them.
And then secondly, I think many modern believers mistakenly believe that the Book of Leviticus has nothing for them because it's clear that Jesus fulfilled the Levitical Priestly Tabernacle system of worship and so because it's fulfilled, we don't have anything to do with this today. Therefore, we can't learn or receive from the Book of Leviticus.
But the thing about this book is that it is important on a lot of levels. First of all, this was the first book that a Jewish child would study as they grew up. So the very first book that was brought to them. Not Genesis, not Exodus, but the Book of Leviticus. It's quoted about 40 times in the New Testament so it has New Testament importance. And it also presents us with the theological framework or a more robust theological framework for sin and defilement and sacrificial atonement. And on top of all of that, it's God's Word. So we should study it today.
And in our study of Leviticus, there's a bunch of things that we're going to learn and be confronted with but I think we'll focus on three main things throughout these 27 chapters. First of all we're going to see a lot of truth taught to us about who God is and who man is, especially in relationship to God. One of the keys to the Book of Leviticus or one of the things that's held out most often is the holiness of God or that the people of God should be holy like God. Over 80 times, holiness or holiness will be referred to here in the Book of Leviticus. So a key idea of the book is echoed in Leviticus 11, verse 44 where God says, "Be Holy for I am Holy." Sort of a theme statement of the entire Book of Leviticus. So in thinking about who God is and who man is, we're going to confront the awfulness of sin, the necessity of blood sacrifice, the costliness of these sacrifices. And we're going to basically be presented with the problem, sin, that the gospel came to eradicate.
But another thing that will be held out to us in the Book of Leviticus is not just the basic truths about God and man but also there would be a prefiguring of the redemptive ministry of Jesus. Jesus does fulfill the Levitical sacrificial system and so it's through Him that we're cleansed. It's through Him that we approach and have fellowship with God. We have confidence, Hebrews 10 verse 19 tells us to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, not bulls and goats that we'll see mentioned in Leviticus but the blood of Christ. By the new and living way, it says in Hebrews 10, that He opened for us through the curtain that is through His flesh.
And then as I mentioned last week in a study that I gave on Joshua chapter five, we're also going to see in the Book of Leviticus timeless principles that we can glean from temporary laws. And one of the examples that I gave was we're going to see in the Book of Leviticus a lot about building structures to protect people from falling off of a roof. This is part of the law of God and the principle for today is, you want to make sure that you take care of people and you're not negligent in the things that you build and stuff like that. It might not necessarily mean that you have to build a balcony around your roof because we don't hang out on our roofs in the west like they would in these ancient cultures.
So in Leviticus, we're going to see specific laws that though they might be fulfilled today and though we might not follow them exactly as they were followed amongst the people of Israel, we should be able to glean principles that are biblical from those Old Testament laws and so we're going to try to do that as well. Principles that are timeless gleaned from temporary laws that the people of Israel were under.
Now if you think about it, what Leviticus is ... If you think about it in its relationship to Exodus, it is to Exodus what the apostles are in the New Testament to the gospels. So what do you have in the gospels? You have the big event. Jesus coming, Jesus living, Jesus testifying, Jesus dying, and Jesus rising from the grave. This is the big event upon which our justifications, sanctification and glorification is founded. Without that event, we have nothing. But then the apostles come along and they explain that event. They show us the benefits of that event. And they tell us now how to live in light of that event.
And the Book of Leviticus is that to the book of Exodus. Exodus, the big event occurred. God took the people of Israel, descendants of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, and he purchased them to be His own. Now Leviticus tells that group of people how to apply that original Passover event, the purchasing of God, the covenant that God brought them into, how to apply that event, and how to walk in it today. So in Exodus, you've got the forgiveness or the pardoning of their sin. And now in Leviticus, we see how to continue on in a life of purity. In Exodus, God approaches humans, he approaches man. In Leviticus, we learn how man was to approach God. In Exodus, man's guilt was dealt with but here in Leviticus, our repetitive defilement is dealt with. In Exodus, the people were saved, but in Leviticus, they are sanctified. And in Exodus, there was one momentary great and massive act where God rescued them from Egypt. But Leviticus is a lifelong process of approaching the Lord and having him continually rescue us from ourselves.
So I want you to be thinking about that as we go through the Book of Leviticus because a lot of people mistakenly believe that the Book of Leviticus was somehow a paradigm for people to, in the Old Testament era, get saved or come to know God for the very first time. But these people are God's covenant people already. He's already purchased them, already bought them, already done the Exodus thing to them. Now they belong to Him. How should they then live before Him?
Now all that said, I've given you a 10 minute introduction to the Book of Leviticus and in a sense, I'm trying to give you a framework from which to look at this entire book. And I'm trying to tell you, this is a beautiful passage of scripture and there are so many things we can glean from it. It is a wonderful book in God's word. But on the other hand, I do want to admit, it can be tedious at times. It can be difficult. I don't want to act like it isn't.
I know many Christians who have set out to read through the Bible, read through Genesis, read through Exodus, got to Leviticus and just lost heart. That is a normal experience. So on the other hand, as much as I want to elevate the Book of Leviticus and celebrate it and hold it up to where it is, the Word of God, I don't want to do anything to diminish that. I also just want to say, you got to eat your vegetables, man. Sometimes there's just a portion in God's word that is not as easy as other portions. But you will be helped and the rest of scripture will be informed by even the difficult passages that you go through.
1 The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock.
All right. In the first two verses which we've already read together, it starts out by telling us that the Lord called Moses. The Lord called Moses. The timing of this is a year after the original Passover. So they've completed the Tabernacle now, it tells us in the last chapter of Exodus. They've finished the Tabernacle. But now they need instructions on what to do in the Tabernacle. So Moses is called by God, again, for another meeting, so that he can hear from the Lord on what they're to actually do in operation in worshiping Him there in this new structure. So what you have now is the first month of the second year of their freedom. They've been free now for a year, they've built the Tabernacle, and now in the first month of that second year, they're receiving directions on how to worship the Lord. So this is very much is the successive story. Exodus happened and now Leviticus is about to occur. And we really won't get anymore historical narrative, the story kind of pauses now for these directions until we get to the end of the Book of Leviticus and then on into the Book of Numbers, the story will continue on.
Like I eluded to already, the title that we have for the book, Leviticus, or pertaining to the Levi so it's kind of a handbook for the Levitical Priesthood. But the Hebrew name for the Book of Leviticus actually comes from the first phrase of verse 1. The Lord called. The Lord called. So the idea here is God is calling His people into this relationship with Himself. Moses is the one who wrote the Book of Leviticus. Ancient tradition tell us this, internal evidence points to this. 56 times he is mentioned here in the Book of Leviticus. And Jesus ascribed the entire Pentateuch to Moses when he walked the Earth. So Moses wrote this book. And God comes to Moses and speaks to him, it says in verse 1, from the Tent of Meeting. That might have been the Tabernacle or if you were with us in our study of Exodus, there was a secondary tent that Moses used to seek the Lord while the Tabernacle was being constructed. That was also called the Tent of Meeting. So it could have been either one of those structures.
And God begins, right away, there in verse 2, by telling Moses some basics of the sacrificial system. He says when any one of you brings an offering, any one of the people of Israel brings an offering to the Lord, here's how you need to do it. You should bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock. Now this is cool because what's being hinted at here is that not only is God a national god for the people of Israel, in other words, these are my people, he took Israel out of their slavery. But he now is addressing the individuals inside of this corporate gathering. And as God's people today, we understand that there is no nation on Earth that is a Christian nation where everybody inside of it is Christian. But we do understand that the church, if there's any group that is comparable to the Old Testament Israel is the church today, but we don't replace them. And as the church, God's people, God directs us corporately, in other words, there's things he wants for all of us together. But still, he looks and says when any of you, individually. So God is calling His group of people to behave in certain ways by inviting His individual people to behave in certain ways.
And before we move forward in the text, I just have to encourage you or exhort you in this direction. There is a necessity for you, individually, to take very seriously your personal walk with God. You know in Israel eventually came into times of moral collapse and corruption in the Old Testament era, of course it was a nation or a group of people adrift but how did that occur? Well it happened one individual Israelite at a time.
So when Sunday rolls around and you decide to neglect corporate worship, when your moments of getting into the Word and prayer come around and you decide to spend it on your phone instead. When sin is presented to you and you're struggling to resist it and then eventually you just begin giving into it and you decide I'm not going to tell anybody, I'm not going to confess this, I'm just going to enter into this perpetually. As all those things occur to you individually, you have to remember, you are affecting in a negative way, the congregation. Invisibly and in unseen ways but you are most certainly affecting the power, the vitality, the health, the strength, the potential, of the congregation. But when you individually are in the Word and prayer, Evangelizing, in the Spirit, confessing your sins, looking for accountability, part of the corporate gathering. When you individually are doing those things, you are up building and strengthening the overall congregation. And so God, immediately, this book gets very personal. There's the whole group, but now I'm calling for individuals to walk with me.
The Burnt Offering
Now in the first few chapters of the Book of Leviticus, a bunch of different sacrifices are mentioned. We have the burnt offering in chapter 1. And then we'll go from there. There will be the grain offering and a peace offering, a sin offering, and a guilt offering that will be detailed. And I will admit to you that there is a line of interpretation that gets very metaphorical or typological in their interpretations of these sacrifices. You know little things that are mentioned will then be connected to some aspect of the life of Jesus. And I think for the most part, I'm going to resist that temptation. I want to think about what Leviticus meant to the original hearers and then try to mine those truths for our modern time today. But we're going to start out here in chapter 1 with the burnt offering.
3 “If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. 4 He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. 5 Then he shall kill the bull before the Lord, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 6 Then he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces, 7 and the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. 8 And Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, the head, and the fat, on the wood that is on the fire on the altar; 9 but its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar, as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
Let's read verse 3 through 8 together. It says, if His offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting that he may be accepted before the Lord. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering and it shall be accepted for Him to make atonement of Him. Then he shall kill the bull before the Lord and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. Then he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces and the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall arrange the pieces, the head and the fat on the wood that is on the fire on the altar. But its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
So like I said, the first offering that's mentioned here in Leviticus, right off the bat, is this burnt offering. Now nationally, later, the burnt offering would develop into a sacrifice that was offered every day in the morning and in the evening, every Saturday or Sabbath for the whole nation. And on the first day of every month as well as at some various festivals and feasts throughout the year. So this sacrifice had a real national identity and sense to it. And that might be the reason that it's mentioned first because it was so regularly observed in Israel. But it wasn't only a national sacrifice. It was also a very individual sacrifice. If you, as a worshiper, wanted to serve and worship God in this way, with a burnt offering, you could voluntarily give this sacrifice to the Lord.
Now it's probable that there are movements and details that are not mentioned because this is a condensed version of the instructions. For instance, when the worshiper came in with the bull or with the goat to offer this sacrifice to God, it wasn't probably something that was done in complete silence. But it's just not mentioned what they say. But in other passages and in even some of the psalms, there are various words that the worshiper probably said as they put their hand upon the sacrifice. Prayers that they would have prayed, things that they would have confessed to the priest or to God through the priest.
All of this was done, this burnt offering, it says in verse 3 and 4, so that the worshiper could be accepted before the Lord to make atonement for himself. So there's the idea here that this person wants to be in fellowship with God, they want to be clean before God. There's something that they want to confess to God. There's just a sense that they want to approach God. Now later, there were sin offerings, guilt offerings, so specific sins could be dealt with with the sacrificial system. But this seems to be more general in nature.
And of course, we understand in our New Testament area that personal fellowship with God is a necessitates how we deal with sin. John tells us that we want to walk in the light as he is in the light so that we might have fellowship with Him.
Now the thing that's fascinating to me about this burnt offering is that the worshiper is intensely involved with this sacrifice. He comes in, the worshiper, with the animal. He brings it to the priest. He slays it with his own hand and kills it. He then takes it and cuts it up into pieces before the Lord. And he washes those pieces with water. It's the priest who take them and burn them. It's the priests who do the rest of the sacrifice. But the individual worshiper is intensely involved. Laying his hand, killing, cutting. He's very involved. The worshiper, in other words, is conscious of the cost of this animal. He's made a decision to live this way before the Lord. He's identifying with the cost of his own sin and what it's doing. And his need for blood sacrifice so that he can approach God. He's conscious of the consequences of his sin. And what it's doing to this animal and to his finances and he's very conscious of that sacrifice. And then to be able to be the one who does not die on the altar but walks away, he is thankful to God. So he's intensely involved in this whole process.
10 “If his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock, from the sheep or goats, he shall bring a male without blemish, 11 and he shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the Lord, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar. 12 And he shall cut it into pieces, with its head and its fat, and the priest shall arrange them on the wood that is on the fire on the altar, 13 but the entrails and the legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall offer all of it and burn it on the altar; it is a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
Now, in verse 10, it says, if his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock, from the sheep or goats, he shall bring a male without blemish and he shall kill it on the North side of the altar before the Lord. And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall throw it's blood against the sides of the altar. And he shall cut it into pieces with its head and its fat and the priest shall arrange them on the wood that is on the fire on the altar. But the entrails and the legs, he shall wash with water. And the priest shall offer all of it and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
So what this means is, because there's a second description of the burnt offering that we just read. But in the first description, you have a bull, that would be the most expensive animal that could be offered. Now you have a sheep or goat that is being offered to God. And that would sort of represent those of the middle class who perhaps could not afford to offer a bull.
14 “If his offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves or pigeons. 15 And the priest shall bring it to the altar and wring off its head and burn it on the altar. Its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar. 16 He shall remove its crop with its contents and cast it beside the altar on the east side, in the place for ashes. 17 He shall tear it open by its wings, but shall not sever it completely. And the priest shall burn it on the altar, on the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
But then thirdly, we're going to see that there was a third type of burnt offering and that would be an offer of birds, it says in verse 14. It says if his offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, then he shall bring his offering of Turtle Doves or pigeons. And the priest shall bring it to the altar and wring off its head and burn it on the altar. So this is different from the first two sacrifices. The priest now is involved a little bit more. He does the killing of this bird. It's blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar. He shall remove its crop with its contents and cast it beside the altar on the East side in the place for ashes. He shall tear it open by its wings but shall not sever it completely and the priest shall burn it on the altar on the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
Of course for us, as we think about this, it's natural for us to celebrate what God has done here. He's not isolating or excluding any economic bracket. The wealthy can offer a bull. The middle class can offer a sheep or a goat. And those who are in poverty, they can offer a Turtle Dove or a pigeon. This is the kindness and the graciousness of God. And it should be obvious to us but perhaps it must be said, that the people who offered the bulls or the goats were not inherently more holy or righteous or godly than those who offered the Turtle Doves or the pigeons. And vice versa. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is certainly in the godly class. Yet when she offered a sacrifice to dedicate baby Jesus to the Lord, she had a similar option and her and Joseph were forced to offer of the Turtle Dove and pigeon category indicating that they were not wealthy people but that they were in the poorer class in Israelite society. But she was a spiritual elite. She was a spiritually wealthy woman. And of course, in Jesus's ministry, there were times where he would see poor widows or those who gave little yet ... Even though they were materially poor, they were spiritually wealthy and elite in so many different ways.
So this is the record here in Leviticus 1 of the burnt offering itself and it really was useful to those who wanted to pursue the Lord. And basically, signal that they wanted to be wholly, totally, completely, dedicated to God. And why is that? Well because the other sacrifices, many of them, it would be a partial sacrifice. So God would take a portion of the animal for Himself and then the priests or the priests and the worshiper would eat the rest of the sacrifice that had been offered. But with the burnt offering, the whole animal was consumed on the altar which meant that God was the sole consumer of the sacrifice. And this was meant to be emblematic of the worshiper saying, this is what I want for my life. I want God to have everything. I don't want anything to be left out. I want God to have every single part of my life.
So perhaps for us, as we think about this today, we might think about those moments where God is prompting our hearts to afresh, commit ourselves to Him and to say, God, I want you to have every part of me.
You know I've found in my own Christian life and walk that there have just been so many moments over the years where that question has been posited to me again. Do you want me to have all of your life, Nate? The Spirit will ask. And when you're 18-years-old, if that's when the Lord gets ahold of your heart, it's one thing to answer yes, Lord, I want you to have all of me. Then a few years later, time ticks by, life changes, focuses and priorities are different and the question comes. Can I have all of you? And then you get married, perhaps, or a family grows or a career flourishes and then the question again, can I have all of you? And I find at each stage of life, the Lord, by His Spirit, he whispers into our ears, can I have all of you? Will you be completely devoted to me? Or will there be segments of your life that you're holding back for yourself? And so the burnt offering, I think, is representative of those moments that we would come to the Lord and say, God, afresh, I want you to have all of me, me in my entirety.
Leviticus 2 - The Grain Offering
1 “When anyone brings a grain offering as an offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour. He shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it 2 and bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests. And he shall take from it a handful of the fine flour and oil, with all of its frankincense, and the priest shall burn this as its memorial portion on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 3 But the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the Lord’s food offerings.
So that's the burnt offering. The next offering will be the grain offering, followed by the fellowship offering, and then the sin offering and then the guilt offering. Let's read about the grain offering in Leviticus Chapter 2. He says in verse 1, when anyone brings a grain offering as an offering to the Lord, His offering shall be a fine flower. He shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it and bring it to Aaron's sons, the priests. And he shall take from it a handful of the fine flower and oil with all of it's frankincense and the priest shall burn this as its memorial portion on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. But the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons. It is a most holy part of the Lord's food offerings.
Now generally, the daily burnt offering that we already talked about was followed by this grain offering, Numbers chapter 28 tells us. And they were often mentioned together in the historical books, burnt offering, grain offering. So it's natural that the grain offering would be mentioned second here in the Book of Leviticus. Sometimes this grain offering is called a cereal offering in some translations or a meal offering because it consisted of flour and baked goods. And different types of baked goods are going to be mentioned throughout the passage. Uncooked flour would be offered, bread baked in an oven would be offered. Bread prepared on a griddle would be offered. And also break cooked in a pan would be offered.
Now there was something practical about this particular sacrifice because it was a major part of the priests payment and diet they would actually eat a big portion of this sacrifice. And so it would go along with the meat that they'd receive from other sacrifices. But the idea of bringing grain actually has within it, even the Hebrew words that are used speak to the offering of tribute to a foreign king. So the grain offering kind of has the idea in it of allegiance to a king that you want to submit yourself to. So the idea being that He's my Lord, He's able to direct my life, and I owe everything that I am to Him. I'm seeking His protection, His provision, His guidance, His leadership in my life. So people in a sense, were offering this sacrifice as a way to communicate their everyday need for God. Not just a wholeness of God I want you to have everything in my life, but this would be more of a daily kind of relationship with the Lord. Dedicating yourself afresh each day to the work and the Word of God. This would be similar to Paul, Romans Chapter 12, verse 1 and 2 saying present your bodies as a living sacrifice, wholly and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship. So that's partly what the grain sacrifice would emphasize.
4 “When you bring a grain offering baked in the oven as an offering, it shall be unleavened loaves of fine flour mixed with oil or unleavened wafers smeared with oil. 5 And if your offering is a grain offering baked on a griddle, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mixed with oil. 6 You shall break it in pieces and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering. 7 And if your offering is a grain offering cooked in a pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. 8 And you shall bring the grain offering that is made of these things to the Lord, and when it is presented to the priest, he shall bring it to the altar. 9 And the priest shall take from the grain offering its memorial portion and burn this on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 10 But the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the Lord’s food offerings.
Then he says in verse 4 to continue detailing this grain offering, he says, when you bring a grain offering baked in the oven as an offering, it shall be unleavened loaves of fine flour mixed with oil or unleavened wafers smeared with oil. And if your offering is a grain offering baked on a griddle, it shall be a fine flour, unleavened, mixed with oil. You shall break it in pieces and pour oil on it. It is a grain offering. And if your offering is a grain offering cooked in a pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. And you shall bring the grain offering that is made of these things to the Lord, and when it is presented to the priest, he shall bring it to the altar. And the priest shall take from the grain offering its memorial portion and burn this on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. But the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons. It is a most holy part of the Lord's food offering. So again, you have the different types of grain offering that are mentioned there. And the mention that this was a major part of the payment for Aaron and his sons or the Levitical priesthood.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:13, he said do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings. And actually, the context of 1 Corinthians 9, was that Paul was justifying the payment of gospel workers in the church. And he went all the way back to the Old Testament for just one of I think eight or nine different points that he made justifying payment for gospel workers. And one of his points was based on the Old Testament temple sacrificial systems that the priests, they get their food from the temple. The very thing they're doing to help serve the people spiritually is where they get their bread to eat, their food. From time to time, as a pastor who is employed by a local church, so-to-speak, I will at the breakfast table or the dinner table as we're eating our meal together, I'll point out to my family, hey, let's pray for the church because in a sense, our food that we're eating today has come from the work of the gospel. And they have decided that they want to support this gospel work and the preaching of His Word through helping us buy our bacon this morning. So we're living on the other side of the cross so now bacon has been cleansed for us.
11 “No grain offering that you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey as a food offering to the Lord. 12 As an offering of firstfruits you may bring them to the Lord, but they shall not be offered on the altar for a pleasing aroma. 13 You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.
All right. He goes on about the grain offering though, in verse 11, and says no grain offering that you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven for you shall burn no leaven or any honey as food offering to the Lord. As an offering of first fruits, you may bring them to the Lord but they shall not be offered on the altar for a pleasing aroma. You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering. With all your offerings, you shall offer salt.
So a couple of themes there that are important. One is the idea of leaven having a negative connotation, being connected to the idea of the way that sin permeates and expands and therefore ruins everything. And the idea that the people of Israel left the nation of Egypt eating bread that they did not have time to leaven. And here the idea is, when you offer your grain to the Lord, don't let it be leavened. Nor any honey which is the sweetest thing that nature had to offer at that time or that they could find or produce or cultivate or grow. So he says, these things, it's not that they weren't to eat them, it's just they weren't to be part of the offerings to the Lord. And then the idea of salt also being offered. Salt had somehow come to represent the covenant that God had made with His peoples so they would offer salt as a memorial that they were a covenant people with God. Again, this is not God's way of saying do you want my covenant? Do you want to be saved? So do these things. This is His way of saying, you are in my covenant, you are chosen, you are saved from Egypt, so now do these things in response.
14 “If you offer a grain offering of firstfruits to the Lord, you shall offer for the grain offering of your firstfruits fresh ears, roasted with fire, crushed new grain. 15 And you shall put oil on it and lay frankincense on it; it is a grain offering. 16 And the priest shall burn as its memorial portion some of the crushed grain and some of the oil with all of its frankincense; it is a food offering to the Lord.
Then in verse 14 to close out the grain offering, he says, if you offer a grain offering of first fruits to the Lord, you shall offer for the grain offering of your first fruits, fresh ears, roasted with fire, crushed new grain. And you shall put oil on it and lay frankincense on it. It is a grain offering. And the priest shall burn as its memorial portion some of the crushed grain and some of the oil with all its frankincense. It is a food offering to the Lord.
So sometimes part of the grain offering here, would be actual first fruits themselves of the crop. And in a sense, offering the first fruits was a way to say thank you to God and in faith to say we believe more is coming. Because when you're offering the first, you're assuming there's going to be a second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and on and on. So this was their way of by faith saying, God, we think that you are providing for us. We want to demonstrate that by giving to you the first fruits.
Leviticus 3 - The Peace Offering
1 “If his offering is a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers an animal from the herd, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord. 2 And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and kill it at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall throw the blood against the sides of the altar. 3 And from the sacrifice of the peace offering, as a food offering to the Lord, he shall offer the fat covering the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, 4 and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. 5 Then Aaron’s sons shall burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering, which is on the wood on the fire; it is a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
Now in chapter three, which will be our last chapter for this study, we have the peace offering and is again, a shorter chapter so let's read about this third offering mentioned here in Leviticus. If his offering is a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers an animal from the herd, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord. And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and kill it at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall throw the blood against the sides of the altar. And from the sacrifice of the peace offering is a food offering to the lord. He shall offer the fat covering, the entrails, and all the fat that is on the entrails, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the long, lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. Then Aaron's sons, shall burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering which is on the wood on the fire. It is a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. So we've seen the burnt offering, we've seen the grain offering, and now we have the peace offering.
Now the peace offering is likely coupled together or joined together, I should say, with the burnt and grain offering because it was one of those offerings that specifically said, offered a soothing aroma or a pleasing aroma to the Lord. So it's another one of those sacrifices. This peace offering was an optional sacrifice, something that believers would choose to give to the Lord. Leviticus chapter 7 will show us that sometimes, they would offer it as a way of confessing sin. Sometimes it was just a way to freely free-will worship God, you know I just am feeling it right now, I just want to worship the Lord. And sometimes a peace offering would be given as a way to fulfill a vow, a commitment that a believer had made to God. I love all three of those, by the way. They're just all beautiful for us as modern day believers and Christians. There are times we must confess our sin. There are times that we just have to say, man, I got a spontaneously praise God. I need to get to some place where I can offer God a sacrifice of praise. And there are times that we make a commitment to God that we need to fulfill, a vow, so-to-speak.
Now this offering apparently symbolized peace with God because at the end of it, a portion of it would be set aside for Aaron and his sons, the priests, but also would be set aside for the worshipers. So the idea is that the worshiper is eating a sacred meal, not necessarily with God, that's kind of the concept, but more before the Lord. So the idea is, the burnt offering has occurred, a whole dedication. The grain offering has occurred daily dedication. And now this peace offering has occurred signifying they've entered fellowship with God. They're experiencing the Lord.
So they offer this sacrifice to God, but God will only take a portion of it, as I've been saying. And the priests and the worshiper would receive their own portion. So the idea, again, fellowship with God, publicly rejoicing before the Lord. Now like I said, this is an optional sacrifice but sometimes there were special ceremonies that this would be partaken in.
So again, very similar to the burnt offering this peace offering. The animal would be presented by the worshiper. He'd lay hands on the sacrifice's head. He would slay the animal and then the priest would splash the blood upon the altar.
The interesting thing to me is that as the animal was divvied up, the part that God took was the entrails, the vital sometimes thought of as inedible parts of the animal. This might have actually been something that God was doing partly to save His people from an error of their time. Many pagan religions would take the innards of an animal like the liver and seek to discern the divine will or spiritual dimension through those innards in some ways. So perhaps God was saying, nope, just burn those on the altar. You don't want to mess around with them. He took the fat, things like that, and that was burnt. And the believers, they received really in a sense, the best parts, the most nutritive parts were given to them. But the idea for them was, in their culture, giving the fat, that was the best parts. So they're giving the best to God and they receive everything that is left. So they come into peace with God.
6 “If his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord is an animal from the flock, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish. 7 If he offers a lamb for his offering, then he shall offer it before the Lord, 8 lay his hand on the head of his offering, and kill it in front of the tent of meeting; and Aaron’s sons shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar. 9 Then from the sacrifice of the peace offering he shall offer as a food offering to the Lord its fat; he shall remove the whole fat tail, cut off close to the backbone, and the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails 10 and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. 11 And the priest shall burn it on the altar as a food offering to the Lord.
Now he says in verse 6, if his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord is an animal from the flock, male or female he shall offer it without blemish. If he offers a lamb for his offering, then he shall offer it before the Lord, lay his hand on the head of his offering and kill it in front of the Tent of Meeting. And Aaron's son shall throw it's blood against the sides of the altar. Then from the sacrifice of the peace offering, he shall offer as a food offering to the Lord, it's fat. He shall remove the whole fat tail which I'm told can get very large at times on sheep. Cut off close to the backbone and the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails. And the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the long lobe, the liver, he shall remove with the kidneys. And the priest shall burn it on the altar as a food offering to the Lord. So this offering is a little more flexible than the burnt offering but similar. But more flexible in that male or female animals could be offered.
Again, God takes a certain portion, the fat, the tail, the backbone, the fat and the entrails. So it's all kind of gross to me but that's what God chooses and takes and is burnt upon the altar. And the meat, again, is divided between the priest, who got the breast and the right thigh, and the worshiper's family who got everything else.
12 “If his offering is a goat, then he shall offer it before the Lord 13 and lay his hand on its head and kill it in front of the tent of meeting, and the sons of Aaron shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar. 14 Then he shall offer from it, as his offering for a food offering to the Lord, the fat covering the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails 15 and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. 16 And the priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering with a pleasing aroma. All fat is the Lord’s. 17 It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood.”
If his offering is a goat, verse 12, then he shall offer it before the Lord. And lay his hand on its head and kill it in front of the Tent of Meeting. And the sons of Aaron shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar. Then he shall offer from it as his offering for a food offering to the Lord, the fat covering the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. And the priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering with a pleasing aroma. All fat is the Lord's. And again, for them, that was the best part. It belongs to God. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood. So that's the peace offering.
And again, verse 16, this peace offering is considered a food offering to the Lord. Now you probably notice the burnt offering you had the bull could be offered, a sheep or a goat could be offered, and the bird could be offered. No bird option is given for the peace offering. And that likely is indicative of the idea that with a bird, there'd be no meal that God and the priests and the family could partake of. And with what is probable, what many people suppose, is that those who were poor who wanted to engage in a peace offering, they would actually be part of eating the meal of others who gave a peace offering of the bull or of the sheep or of the goat. They would partake of the meal that others had offered to God and it would be more of a sacrifice of the heart. They're wanting to engage in that sacrifice but the bird is not an option, the Turtle Dove or the pigeon is not an option here at this point.
Now usually, when more than one kind of offering was offered, the procedure went sin or guilt offering first which we'll actually look at in our next study followed by a burnt offering, then the fellowship offering or the grain offering, would be offered together and maybe even a drink offering would then be given to the Lord. So sin would be dealt with and then at the end, there's fellowship all together. So all the sin is dealt with, consecration, dedication, and then at the end, there they are in fellowship with the Lord. Which is a very gospel-centered way of thinking about things. Our sin must be dealt with then we come to the Lord. We confess our sins, he cleanses us, washes us, and we're entering into fellowship with God.
It closes there in verse 17 with a statute, no fat for the people of Israel, no drinking of the blood for the people of Israel. And part of the reason for this, Leviticus 17:11 says for the life of the flesh is in the blood, so the blood was for atonement. It was not for consumption.
All right. These sacrifices, I'll just close with a little word about them. Some will say in our modern era that the sacrifices offered no real forgiveness to the people of Israel. That's kind of a hard one for me to stomach personally because over and over again, especially in Leviticus 4 through 6 which we'll look at in our next study together, there's a little phrase that's repeated over and over again. It says they or he shall be forgiven. This offering is given, this sacrifice is given, and the worshiper, they shall be forgiven. So I don't take it lightly, it's a serious thing, to then say, it's not really real forgiveness that they received in the Book of Leviticus. But it is clear, biblically, that these sacrifices were limited in some way that Jesus's sacrifice was not limited.
Hebrews 10, verse 1 says that it can never, those old sacrifices, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, it can never make perfect those who draw a mirror. So there's a limitation. Jesus's sacrifice could make perfect those who draw near but these sacrifices could not. Hebrews 10 verse 4, it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Hebrews 10, 11, and 14, these same sacrifices which can never take away sins, and then he says for by a single offering, Jesus, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
So there's a contrast in the New Testament between these sacrifices and the sacrifice of Jesus. So even though throughout Leviticus it will say he or they shall be forgiven as a result of these sacrifices, in the New Testament we discover that the forgiveness was not full or complete. It could never perfect the worshiper. They could never take away the sins of the worshiper completely. And they had to have repeatedly be offered. Jesus's sacrifice though, could make perfect, could take away sins, and only had to be offered once. It wasn't a repeated kind of thing.
So if that's the case, if there's some kind of forgiveness offered but not up to what Jesus's sacrifice offered, what were the limitations of these sacrifices? Well one limitation that has been observed is that these sacrifices, they did need to be offered by faith for them to have their full value and impact before God. But because of their very nature, they led a lot of people in Israel to just slip into a ceremonialism. So I touch a carcass, I've declared ceremonially unclean, and there's a certain thing that I've got to go through in the Tabernacle. But there's no faith, there's no heart, there's no drive, there's no real desire for God that is present. That was a limitation.
They also were limited, it seems, to certain kind of personal sins. So you did certain things, some sins would have a sacrifice that you could then live out and others it was just judgment that had to come. Whereas Jesus's sacrifice dealt with not just individual sins but the sin problem that we've received from Adam within the human heart. These sacrifices kept a covenant going. They were God's covenant people. But they really couldn't be the initiation of a person's relationship with God. So in a sense, these sacrifices are more like 1 John 1:9, confess your sins and he is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness than John 3:16, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. These sacrifices were not really entrance into the covenant but a way to maintain the covenant that God had given. Just as for us, when we confess our sins to the Lord as believers, it's maintaining our relationship with God. We want to keep a short account with Him.
And these sacrifices were limited, it seems, to one sin per sacrifice except for the day of atonement which is covered everything. But you had a sin, you had to offer a sacrifice for that specific sin rather than general sin. And of course, the animals, as we've already said there in Hebrews, could not be all sufficient but only point to the all sufficient sacrifice of Jesus. So really, it's a sacrifice of Christ that matters. So these sacrifices did have a limitation but they were helpful to the people of God to drawing them into their daily relationship with Him.
So with that, I would encourage you. Obviously, we are not under this covenant or we do not live in this era as believers, or we're going to engage in this sacrificial system, but you can see here that God is designing something for His people in that era by which they can approach Him, engage with Him, partake of Him. Sin has to be dealt with, He draws them in, He wants to eat with them, He wants to fellowship with them, He wants them to consecrate themselves to Him. And so God wants the same thing for us today. He doesn't want us to do these things, but He does want our whole devotion. He does want us to confess our sin. He does want us to keep short accounts with Him. He does want to fellowship with us. He does want us to look to Him for provision. He does want us to think of Him like a king that is the Lord of our lives. He wants all of those things today. And praise God we can do those things without these sacrifices. But that's what He still desires for us today. So let's engage with our God.
God bless you, I'll see you next week.