The Burnt Offering I recently purchased an interesting...
The Burnt Offering
I recently purchased an interesting book that is fast becoming a bestseller. It is called “The Shack”. I know that some of you have already read it. Others intend to do so, and so I will not give too much about the book away. The book is about a grieving father who receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him to meet in the Oregon wilderness where his daughter was brutally murdered. The book wrestles with the question: how could God have allowed this to happen?
The book is worth reading—I recommend it—but I also want to caution you that the way it portrays God is not always in line with the Scripture. If I can point to a major flaw in the book it would be this: In it God is portrayed as someone without anger or judgement in him. That my friends, is a portrait that is consistent with the modern world, where God is seen to be an all loving and doting grandparent, but is it consistent with Scripture?
While you and I may be tempted to rehabilitate God’s image because we don’t like to think of God as being angry or judgemental, we must know that a God who is not angered over sin, and a God who does not judge sin, is not a Living God, not a Holy God but an idol of our own making. The God of the Bible is deeply offended by sin, and nowhere do we see this more clearly than in the OT system of sacrifice.
This morning I want us to consider the sacrifice of Christ. We are going to be doing that by examining the sacrifice of the burnt offering, the most common form of sacrifice practised in Old Testament times.
The Burt offering. Aside from your wife’s mishaps in the kitchen, does the phrase mean anything to you?
To know about the burnt offering we must turn to an obscure book of the Old Testament: Leviticus. Leviticus is a book which few Christians have read from beginning to end. That is because Leviticus goes into the rites and customs of ancient sacrifice and it seem to have little relevance for those of us living in the 21st century. Not only that, but the laws contained in the book of Leviticus are sometimes difficult to understand.
Having said that, the book of Leviticus is foundational for faith. It’s central theme is holiness. And you simply will never understand Christianity without understanding what Old Testament sacrifice entailed.
One must not forget either that the Book of Leviticus is the book that contains the greatest commandment of all: Love your neighbour as yourself. That command is found in Leviticus 19:18.
Friends, Christianity is unlike all the religions of the world, in that it teaches that salvation has been won through a sacrifice.
Some religions teach that the way to God is through knowledge. That’s why some say that esoteric teachings are the way to being spiritual. Such religions talk a lot about “spirituality”.
Other beliefs like Buddhism teach a way of life and a set of principles. Those who follow them find “enlightenment”.
Still others, like Judaism, teach that obedience to the Law of God is what guarantees life.
But Christianity is not like these. Christianity is not about secret knowledge, nor is it a way of life, nor is it a set of rules to live by. That’s where a lot of people get confused. They think Jesus was a just another inspiring moral leader who taught people the way to God. But Jesus was not an example. He laid done his life, as Scripture says for the sins of the whole world. He was a sacrifice. That distinction is crucial. Jesus is not an example, he is a saving sacrifice.
In John 10:17-19 Jesus says: “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.”
Now last week we spoke on the subject of worship. For us, worship means gathering together every Sunday to sing songs, to pray, to listen to God’s word, to share in Holy Communion. But for the ancient Israelite, worshipping God meant sacrifice.
Every time an ancient Israelite person worshipped God he had to do so by killing an animal. Worship was sacrifice. He would go to the tabernacle or temple with an animal. The tabernacle was a large tent like structure where all the sacrifices where performed.
The worshipper would come with his animal. It had to be a domestic animal. It could not be a wild animal caught out in the field. It had to be an animal like an ox or a sheep or a goat, an animal that cost the worshipper something.
If you were poor, you could bring a bird, either a turtle dove or a pigeon. You will recall that when Joseph and Mary went to the temple to dedicate their baby Jesus they took turtledoves. This shows us they were poor.
Now you have to remember that we live in a society where meat is in easy supply. If you want some, you just go down to the local store. In those days, meat was a rare commodity. So when someone offered a sacrifice, they were truly making a sacrifice. They were giving up a whole animal could have been food for them and several other families.
The sacrifice was a sacrifice. It cost. And it had to be the best. You could not offer one of your maimed on lame animals. It had to be an animal “without blemish”, without defect of any kind.
Unlike much of today’s worship, there was a cost involved. Today, many people want to worship without any cost. They want to come to Church but give little in return. That was not the way God intended it from the beginning.
The Jewish worshipper would carefully select the best animal in his herd or flock: a young bull, or lamb or goat. He would come to the door of the tabernacle, and present the animal he had chosen to the priest. The priest would inspect it to see it was acceptable. Even the slightest blemish would disqualify it.
Following inspection, the worshipper would then move with the animal to the north side of the altar. The altar was like a big braaivleis on which the animal would be burned. At the north side of the altar, the worshipper would sing a Psalm, then lay his hand on the animal and pray that God would accept his sacrifice.
The act of laying on of hands was a way of saying. This innocent animal is going to have to die for my sins. By laying my hands on its head I am transferring my guilt and my sin onto the animal. This animal, though innocent, will have to die in my place. It was a system of substitution. The animal dies, instead of me.
There was a small catch. The forgiveness offered through sacrifice was only partial. It only covered only sins that people do not commit deliberately. There was not a single sacrifice in the Old Testament, including the burnt offering, that atoned for deliberate sins.
Once the hand of the worshipper had been placed on the head of the animal and his sins transferred to the animal, the worshipper would then take a knife. He would put the knife to the throat of the animal while the priest held a bucket under the animal’s throat. He would then cut the animals throat, while the blood would drain into the bucket. The priest would then toss the blood against the sides of the altar.
It is important to understand that the blood of the animal was not part of the sacrifice. This is where some people get confused. Blood was not allowed on the altar. That was because the blood was believed to contain the very life of the animal.
The worshipper would then skin the animal by himself. He would cut it up into sections, and the priest would carefully arrange the sections on the wood of the burning altar. The entire animal was burned with the exception of its skin, which became the property of the priest. No part of the BURNT OFFERING, was eaten: the entire animal, blood apart, and skin apart, would burn until it was ashes on the altar. That was a burnt offering.
And when the smoke of the altar ascended up to heaven, we are told in Leviticus 1:9 (NASB95) it was a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
Now those words are all important. I want you to focus on them.
They are the selfsame words used by the apostle Paul to describe the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ in Ephesians 5:2: Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Paul calls the sacrifice of Christ a fragrant offering: the words used of the burnt offering in Leviticus.
So the link is established between the two offerings.
Like the burnt offering Christ is without blemish, that is, without sin, without defect.
Like the burnt offering, the sacrifice of Christ is a sweet smelling savour to God.
Like the sacrifice of the burnt offering where the animal is offered on the wood of the altar, Christ is offered on the wood of the cross.
But there are some important differences.
Unlike the burnt offering where the use of the blood was forbidden on the altar: remember it had to be drained and tossed against the sides of the altar, with the sacrifice of Christ, blood is part of the sacrifice itself. The very life of Jesus is offered to God.
Unlike the burnt offering which offers only partial forgiveness of sin, Christ’s sacrifice offers unlimited forgiveness. His death provides atonement for all sin, no matter how heinous.
You see Old Testament system of sacrifice could only deal with the problem of sin partially.
The most important difference however, is also the most obvious: the fact that the Burnt Offering is of an animal whereas the sacrifice of Christ is a human sacrifice.
As far back as the book of Genesis, Abraham knew that only a human being could truly provide full forgiveness for a human being.
You recall, in obedience to God’s call, Abraham took his only son Isaac to sacrifice him on Mount Moriah. Isaac, not knowing that he was to be the sacrifice said to his father: “My father! Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham responded with words that proved to be prophetic, “God will provide himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” (Gen 22.8)
That friends is the essence of Christianity. Our sin has aroused the anger of God. But rather than direct that anger towards you and me, who are fully deserving of it, his love directs that anger to himself.
That means that all those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ need never fear God’s anger or judgement. Jesus took it all upon himself in the cross.
Auschwitz was the first German concentration camp to become an extermination camp. The gas chambers were in constant use. But because of the great influx of new prisoners daily, the Germans began to use firing squads as well. One day, the commandant selected ten men from one barracks to be executed by the firing squad. One of those selected was the father of a large family. When he was pulled from his place in line, he fell to the ground, begging the commandant to spare his life. The commandant was unresponsive until the man standing next to the fallen one, a Catholic priest named Maximillian Kolbe, stepped forward to offer his life in exchange for the man on his knees. Surprisingly, the commandant agreed to such an arrangement. But, instead of being led away to the firing squad, Father Maximillian was thrown into a tiny damp cell where he suffered the agonizing death of starvation. Today, Maximillian Kolbe is honoured by millions of people because he died in the place of one man.
Jesus Christ, through an agonizing death on the cross, died not for one man, or a few, or even several—but for all men: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Hebrews 9:11-14 (NASB95)
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands; 12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?