Translation & sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan KS, 31 Jan 2016
NAW: 2 Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, “When any man from among you offers an offering to Jehovah, from the cattle, from the herd, and from the flock y’all shall offer your offerings. 3 If his offering is a sacrifice for burning up, he shall offer it—a perfect male from the herd; unto the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, he shall offer it, for his acceptance before the face of Jehovah. 4 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sacrifice to be burned up, and it will be accepted for him, to make atonement on his behalf. 5 And he shall slaughter the son of the herd before the face of Jehovah, and the sons of Aaron the priests shall offer the blood, and they shall sprinkle the blood around on the altar which is at the entrance of the Tent Of Meeting. 6 And he shall skin the sacrifice for burning up, and he shall cut it into its pieces. 7 And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar and they shall arrange sticks upon the fire. 8 And the sons of Aaron the priests shall arrange with the pieces the head and the fat over the sticks which are upon the fire which is upon the altar. 9 And its innards and its legs he shall wash with water, and the priest shall burn up the whole on the altar as a sacrifice for burning up, a fire-offering of a soothing aroma to Jehovah.
1:10 Now if his offering is from the flock—from the sheep or from the goats, he shall offer it—a perfect male—as a sacrifice for burning up, 11 and he shall slaughter it on the side of the altar northwards before the face of Jehovah. Then Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall sprinkle its blood around on the altar. 12 And he shall cut it into its pieces, also with its head and its fat, and then the priest shall arrange them upon the sticks which are on the fire which is on the altar. 13 However, the innards and the legs he shall wash with water, and the priest shall offer the whole, and he shall burn [it] up [on] the altar. It is a sacrifice for burning up, a fire-offering of a soothing aroma to Jehovah.
1:14 And if his offering to Jehovah is a sacrifice for burning up from the birds, then he shall offer his offering from the turtle-doves or from the young pigeons. 15 And the priest shall offer it unto the altar, and he shall pinch off its head and burn it up on the altar, and its blood shall be drained out on the flat side of the altar. 16 Then he shall remove its crop with its feathers, and he shall throw it to the East side of the altar—to the ash pit. 17 And he shall tear it by its wings, but he shall not sever it, and the priest shall burn it up on the altar, on the sticks which are on the fire. It is a sacrifice for burning up—a fire offering—a soothing aroma to Jehovah.
· God commands Moses to speak to the children of Israel. Moses is a prophet delivering God’s word to God’s people – and that includes us.
· The audience is literally “sons of Israel,” speaking of descendants of Jacob (the man who was re-named Israel). The details of these instructions were only binding on Jews, but we can still learn from the general principles they teach about God and His ways.
· The word “man” is placed in an unusual position at the beginning of the Hebrew phrase in v.2, drawing special attention to it. It was the men as the federal head of their household who offered the sacrifice. The system was representative: the father represented his family, the tribal chief represented his tribe, and Moses represented the people before God. Every subject and pronoun in this verse is masculine.
· The word used for “offering/sacrifice” is a derivative of the Hebrew word which means to “draw near.” The verb I translated “offer” literally means “to cause to draw near,” and the noun I translated “offering” literally means “a thing which is brought near.” This is how God and man can get close.
· This first section introduces the twice-daily offering of large animals for burnt offerings and lists what sorts of animals can be offered. There are three categories listed in v.2:
· Now, sacrifices were not a new thing; Abel, Noah, Jacob, and others are specifically mentioned as offering sacrifices, and the Hebrews in Egypt wanted to go out to the wilderness to offer a sacrifice with Moses. What was new was the writing down of instructions for this familiar custom of worship. “The object of the sacrificial laws in this book was… simply to organize and expand the sacrificial worship of the Israelites into an institution in harmony with the covenant between the Lord and His people…” (Keil & Delitzsch)
· “The sacrificial ritual forms the center of the rites of the tabernacle… The idea of sacrifice has an intimate connection with the fact of sin… The two main ends [served by sacrifice] are expiation and consecration… The exclusive use of animal sacrifice for expiation is due to the presence of blood in it. Without blood there is no sacrificial expiation under the law… Vegetable, bloodless sacrifices [are dedicated] to the purpose of consecration alone… What distinguishes the sacrifice from all the other [offerings], however sacred these may be, is that part or the whole of its substance comes upon the altar. Without the altar there would be no sacrifice… In anthropomorphic language, the law expresses the principle of assimilation of the sacrifice by Jehovah when it speaks of it as ‘food for Jehovah’ or ‘a [pleasant aroma] for Jehovah’ [not in the sense that God needs food like men do, but] that there might be a never-ceasing supply of praise and consecration for Him. The sacrifice [which always consisted of plants and animals used for food] must be taken from what constitutes the sustenance of the life of the offerer and from what forms the product of his life… they characterize sacrifice as the gift of life to God… God is not satisfied… with anything short of the consecration of life itself.” ~G. Vos
The Burnt Offering Introduced (v.3)
· Verse Three introduces a new word for the sacrifice. Whereas in v.2, the general word for “gift/offering” was used, here we have the word עלה derived from the verb meaning “to go up.” For this reason, some people call it the “Ascending Offering” (Newberry).
· The idea is that this offering “goes up” in smoke when it is burned, so it designates a “burnt-offering” or, as I translated it, “a sacrifice for burning up”
· Chapter 1 is about this kind of offering.
o Chapter 2 will introduce the grain offerings,
o Chapter 3 the peace offerings,
o Chapter 4 the sin offerings, and
o Chapter 5 the tresspass offering.
o You see, there were several different sorts of sacrifices which could be made, oftentimes multiple ones together, and each has its special meaning and purpose.
· The meaning and purpose of the Burnt or Ascending offering seems to be connected to the idea of going up to God and God finding it pleasing. It is about meeting with God every day and God accepting you.
o Chapter 1 repeats the phrase at the end of v.3 “[Offer this Burnt offering] in order that [you] may be accepted before the LORD.” Also see v.4 “... that it may be accepted for him to make atonement...” The other kinds of sacrifices do not use this phrase about the purpose being accepted before God.
o And three times (vs. 9, 13, and 11) the offerer is reassured that God will be pleased by this sacrifice.
o Acceptance is a universal yearning among humans, is it not?
o To be accepted rather than rejected by God is the ultimate need of mankind.
o What has to happen for us to be accepted by God? Leviticus 1 tells us in symbolic or typological language.
o “Though man was unchanged in his sinfulness, God’s attitude to man altered, thanks to the burnt offering... It propitiates God’s wrath against sin... prevent[ing] God’s displeasure at man’s sin from being turned into punishment.” [Gen. 6:5 & 8:21, Num. 15:24, 2 Sam. 24:25 & 1 Chr. 21:26, Job 42:8, 2 Chron. 29:7-8] ~Gordon Wenham, New International Commentary on the Old Testament: Leviticus.
· CHOICE: In the Hebrew text, emphasis is put on the qualifications of the animal by early placement in the sentence:
o It must be a MALE – The Hebrew word זכר specifically designates the male gender.
o And the animal must be tamim “complete, whole, perfect.” (This is repeated in v.10.)
§ The KJV, NAS, and NIV all use a negative construction (“without blemish/defect”), but the Hebrew word is not a negative one, so I used the positive word “perfect” to be more consistent in translation.
§ The animal to be sacrificed must be a prime specimen—the best—without defects or missing parts. And it could not be a wild animal either (Dt. 14:5), it had to be costly. “As ransoms are wont to be, the burnt offering was a high price to pay.” ~Wenham
o This symbolized the offering of a perfect substitute in place of an imperfect sinner. Jesus fulfilled these very details when He was sacrificed for our sins: He was a male, and He was perfect—both physically and morally.
§ In John 1:29, John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
§ Jesus said He came “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45)
§ And Paul explains in 2 Cor. 5:21, “[God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (NKJV)
· PRESENTATION: After the offerer chooses his bull (or sheep or goat or dove), he is to present it at the entrance of the Tent Of Meeting (v.3).
o The reason given in the text is, “for his acceptance before the face of Yahweh.” The root for the word “acceptance” (“voluntary will” in KJV) is רצה. As a noun, it means “desire, goodwill, favor,” and as a verb (which we will see in the next verse) it means “pay for, make good.”
o People are sinful and unacceptable to God because of their sinful nature. The only way that Man and God can be brought together face to face is through a sacrifice which removes the sin and defilement from the person. That is why God told the men of Israel not to come empty-handed when they came to worship Him (Ex. 23:15, Deut. 16:16).
o This is why Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father but through me” (John 14:6). It is insane to try to get close to God apart from Jesus. But when we trust Jesus to make us right with God, we are carrying, as it were, the right sacrifice – the very thing that God is looking for! Those who trust Jesus will be accepted by God and brought into His favor. Jesus says in Revelation 3:5b “I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” (NKJV)
· LAY HANDS: After the selection and presentation of the sacrificial animal, the next step was for the worshipper to lay (literally “lean”) his hand on the head of the animal.
o This action symbolized a transfer. Throughout the Bible, when someone laid hands on someone or something else, he was transferring something from himself to that other person or thing.
§ Sometimes it was a transfer of authority to rule, as in the case of a prince or king. (Gen. 48:14, Num. 27:18)
§ Sometimes it was a transfer of spiritual gifts, as in the case of the apostles. (1 Tim. 4:14, 2 Tim. 1:6, Matt 19:15, Acts 8:17)
§ And, in the sacrificial system, it was the transfer of guilt (Lev. 16:21, 24:14 etc.).
§ Geerhardus Vos wrote, “the transferred thing was nothing else but the sin, i.e., the liability to death-punishment on the part of the offerer.”
§ Perhaps the meaning could also be expanded to include “[not only] the consciousness of his sinfulness… but also … the desire to walk before God in holiness and righteousness” (K&D)
§ or expanded even further to include identification of his whole self with the animal, such that, as the animal subsequently rose up in smoke as a pleasing aroma to God, the worshipper, as a person who was identified with that animal, would also be accepted by God (Thomas Newberry, Types of the Levitical Offerings).
o According to The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, the Hebrew word קפר is always used in connection with the removal of sin and defilement[1]. It is not so much related to the verb “cover” as to the nouns for “ransom” and “atonement.”
§ The word occurs in the name of the Jewish holiday “Yom Kippur” – the “Day of Atonement.”
§ The verb is not so much “to cover over a sin” (BDB), but rather “to atone by offering a substitute.” It is usually used of the priest offering a bloody sacrifice for a worshipper—in Leviticus there are 49 instances of this. It was the symbolic expression of innocent life given for guilty life.
o Laying hands on the sacrificial animal required the physical presence of the one for whom the sacrifice was made. Rich folks couldn’t hire others to do this religious exercise for them; they couldn’t get away from facing up to God for their sin (Soncino).
o In v.4 we encounter the verb form of the noun “acceptance” that was in v.3. It means “to be paid for, or to be made good.” The worshipper is “made good by” the transaction with the sacrificial animal. Note the perfect tense—there is surety of completed action before it is even done! This gave confidence to the worshipper to approach God knowing that he would indeed be accepted. This is one of the greatest advantages Christianity has over any other religion, the surety of how God will respond to us.
o Again, we see that Jesus is the fulfillment of this sacrifice. Jesus had no sin to make him unacceptable before God. When he died on the cross, a transfer took place whereby our sins were imputed to Him and His righteousness was imputed to us—Isaiah 53 clearly shows this picture. Those of us who believe that this is what Jesus did are acceptable before the face of God. We were paid for; we were made good; we were atoned for by the offering of a substitute! Hallelujah!
· SLAUGHTER: After the selection, presentation, & laying on of hands comes the death of the animal
o In v.5, it is a “young bull/bullock;” verse 11 adds that it may be a sheep or goat - and that it is to be slaughtered on the North side of the altar. (This is synonymous with the “entrance of the tent of meeting” in front of the altar. The steps to the altar were on the South side, the East side was the place for trash, & the West side faced the holy place.)
o The animal was to be killed by the worshipper himself – not by the priest, although later priests took over that role – right in the presence of Jehovah-God. This was typically done with a knife to the throat of the animal. (The only exception being the slaughter of the turtledoves, in v.15, where the priest was to “wring off” the bird’s head and toss it onto the fire on the altar.)
o The animal had to die because death is God’s penalty for sin. God told Adam and Eve that when they sinned they would “surely die,” (Gen. 2:17) and the Apostle Paul affirmed the same in Romans, “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).
o I like how Geerhardus Vos put it, “The sacrificial animal in its death takes the place of the death due the offerer. It is forfeit for forfeit. Christ, not merely in His positive service, but through His suffering and death made up for… our sin. He satisfied the justice of God… God, the offended Person, procures the covering [obliterating our sins], and it is applied to the sinner…” (Biblical Theology)
· SPRINKLING OF BLOOD
o As soon as the animal’s throat was slit, the priests were to catch the blood in one of the bowls that had been made for use in the temple, then carry the bowl of blood to the altar and sprinkle it – not just “on” the altar, but – “around” and “on;” there are two prepositions here.
§ Col. 1:20 tells us that the blood of Christ to which this animal blood points “reconciled all things unto Himself, not only things on earth, but things in heaven.” No wonder its type was so liberally sprinkled in every direction! (Newberry)
§ In the case of the doves, in v.15, there wasn’t as much sprinkling of blood because the little birds didn’t have much blood to donate.
o This presentation of the life blood upon the altar was central to the sacrifice. Hebrews 9:22b tells us that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness [of sin].”
o The worshipper’s work revolves around the animal, and the work of the priest revolves around the altar. Why could only priests touch the altar? To maintain the separation between sinful man and the holy God. There had to be a go-between. A sinful man could not directly approach the holy God; he had to go through a priest who had been approved before God’s presence to be a mediator between his fellow man and God. The book of Hebrews makes it abundantly clear that Jesus Christ fulfilled this function as the High Priest to end all High Priests. Jesus was not only the perfect Lamb, he was also his own officiating priest in offering Himself as a sacrifice, and He lives forever in heaven now to be the mediator between man and God. When we pray, we do so in Jesus’ name—our prayers go through Him to the Father. Jesus is our Priest now, and there is no longer a need among God’s people, the church, for an earthly priest.
o Jesus fulfilled the distinction between what the worshiper and what the priest did in His death: He was put to death on the cross by human hands, but it was He Himself, as the greatest high priest who offered His own blood before Jehovah. That’s what Hebrews 9:11-14 says, “Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, ... with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place... through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself without spot to God [to] cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God”
· SKIN & QUARTER: Once the worshipper had killed the animal and the priest had caught the blood, the worshipper had to cut the skin off of the animal and cut the animal into quarters, as v.6 relates.
o In the case of the bird, the priest was to grab the sacrificial animal by the wings and rip it open (v.17) – but not all the way in two.
o The skin that was flayed off the carcass was not burned, perhaps because of the usefulness of animal hides to make repairs on the tabernacle and to make vellum scrolls on which they would copy the Bible.
o The analogous part on the dove was its feathers, which were thrown to the East side of the altar where the trash was collected.
o Now, once that big old bull was dead, he couldn’t walk himself around anymore, and he was too heavy to carry whole – a two-year-old bull weighs on the order of 1,500 pounds, so quartering the carcass made it easier for the priests to lift the pieces onto the altar.
o It’s hard to know how much spiritual significance to attach to each action, and some of the commentators I read seemed a little over-imaginative in finding symbolism, particularly on this point, but I don’t think it’s going too far to say that one of the words the Bible uses to describe God’s punishment against sin is the word “break” or “broken,” so for the sacrifice to be broken in pieces could be a further symbol of God’s punishment ripping into that animal. For instance:
§ 1Samuel 2:10 The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken (חתת) to pieces;
§ Job 38:15 And from the wicked their light is withheld, and the high arm shall be broken (שׁבר)
§ Isaiah 14:5 The LORD hath broken (שׁבר) the staff of the wicked, and the scepter of the rulers.
§ Matthew 21:44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken (συνθλάω): but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
o Can you see then that when Jesus says His body is broken (κλάω) on behalf of you (1Cor. 11:24), it could be referring to this very principle?
o We know that Jesus’ body, however, was not physically broken into pieces at His crucifixion, so the bird which is not severed could also symbolize our Great High Priest whose bones were not broken in his death (Psalm 34:20 & John 19:36).
· WASHING off the gross stuff (v.9)
o Although, in our passage, the washing is described in v.9 after the burning of the animal on the altar, chronologically, the washing fits before the burning. (The Hebrew syntax actually supports this.)
o The break in chronological order actually draws attention to this ritual washing. What was so important about washing the inner parts (NAS= “entrails”) and legs with water? They were just going to be burned; why wash them?
§ These were the dirtiest parts of the animal where the urine and fecal matter were. The command to wash them reinforced figuratively the importance of being pure and holy in order to relate to God.
§ It also was practical to protect the priests from disease as they were handling all that raw meat.
o The Hebrew word for “innards/inner parts” (qirbo) refers to the “intestines of the abdomen or belly, such as the stomach and bowels...” and the word for “legs” (kera’ayv) generally refers to the “legs… of oxen and sheep… from the knee down to the foot” God wanted even these parts. On the dove these innards are called the “crop,” and it was thrown away, perhaps because it was too small to wash.
o This washing was one of the purposes of the bronze sea and lavers on the temple grounds. These big containers of water were located beyond the altar for people to use to wash their sacrificial animals.
o So, in addition to skinning and cutting the big animals up, the worshipper would pull the intestines out and strip them clean, and pour water over them before the priest picked them up and put them on the altar.
· START FIRE ON ALTAR (v.7) and BURN SACRIFICE (v.8)
o The altar of burnt offering was 7 ½ feet square and 4 ½ feet high.
o The verb here describing the burning of sacrifices is different from the standard Hebrew word for “burn” (saraph). “This verb [hiqtir] does not describe burning of the consuming kind, but of the sublimating kind, a process whereby something is changed into a finer substance. The NAS translation renders it “offer up in smoke” and the Jewish Soncino commentary translates it “make it smoke.”
o Every part of the animal (except the skin, which was given to the priest, and the contents of the intestines, which were washed out—cf. K&D) was intended to be burnt up on the altar as an offering to God.
o Our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29), and fire is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Keil & Delitzsch wrote that the burning of the flesh of the sacrifice upon the altar “represented the purification of the man, who had been reconciled to God, through the fire of the Holy Spirit, which consumes what is flesh, to pervade what is spirit with light and life, and thus to transmute it into the blessedness of fellowship with God... [The sprinkling of the blood around the altar symbolized justification, and this burning on the altar symbolized sanctification] But as the sinner could neither justify himself before God nor sanctify himself by his own power, the sprinkling of blood and the burning of the portions of the sacrifice upon the altar were to be effected, not by the offerer himself, but only by the priest…”
o The “arrangement” of the wood and the “placement” of the fire and the stacking of the sacrificial animal on the altar was neat and orderly. That’s the sense of the verbs in verses 7 and 8. Just as the priests were to take care and be orderly in this little detail of having a fire, so we, too, as Christians should take care and be orderly about every little instruction God gives us in His word.
o In the order of worship of Christians today, the offering of a sacrifice has been fulfilled by the death of Christ and replaced with “devotion to the apostles’ teaching” and by the remembrance of Christ’s completed sacrifice in the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:42). The teaching and preaching of the Gospel message is now the heart of the worship of God’s people, and it too is to be orderly and handled carefully.
· ACCEPTANCE BY GOD
o At the end of v.9, there is a poetic twist as it calls the smoke going up “a sweet savor” (KJV), “a soothing aroma” (NAS), “an aroma pleasing” (NIV), literally, “air-soothing.”
o It conjures up the image of God in heaven bending over, inhaling the air, and beaming with pleasure.
o We are left with no doubt that God will accept the offering and that He will be pleased with it; Ephesians 1:6 says that we are made “acceptable” to God “in/by” Christ “the Beloved.” What a tremendous assurance!
o In the offering of an animal sacrifice according to the Mosaic law, Israelites were saved from being killed by God as punishment for their sins. God said in Leviticus 17:11, “I have given [the animal’s blood] to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls.”
o “This was done in anticipation of the true and perfect sacrifice which Christ, the Son of Man and God, would offer in the fullness of time (Heb. 9.14). This expiation was accomplished not only by the mechanical action of the sacrifice but also through the faith of the offerer seeking reconciliation with God just as much as salvation today is through faith in Jesus Christ.” ~G. Vos
o “Christ also loved us, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odour of a sweet smell” [Eph. 5.2]. At the end of the worship service, the question is not “Am I satisfied?” but “Is God satisfied?” (~Thomas Newberry)When we look to Christ, the answer is a resounding “Yes!”