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The Levitical Offerings
The Levitical Offerings
When we begin our reading of Leviticus we are immediately plunged into the teaching about animal sacrifices. Such worship by offering actual bloody sacrifices to God upon an altar is foreign to us 21st century people. Yet, with such sacrifices we are allowed to see the great problem of sin. God declared: "The soul that sins shall die... " (Ezek. 18:4, 20; Exod. 32:33; Deut. 24:16; Rom. 6:23; etc.). At the same time, we see that God accepts a sacrifice. The sacrifice was to be offered from a broken and contrite heart, broken over the sin that offended and angered God.
Later, David writes of God's declaration: "“If I were hungry I would not tell you, For the world is Mine, and all it contains. “Shall I eat the flesh of bulls Or drink the blood of male goats?" (Psalm 50:12–13). Again, "Samuel said, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.”" (1 Samuel 15:22–23).
Today such statements are taken to mean that the sacrifice is optional and doesn't really matter as long as your 'heart is right'. Such is simply wrong-headed!
What God desires is godliness, righteousness, walking in His ways. Yet God has provided for the weakness of men. God would rather we not sin, but when we do there is forgiveness. When one begins to think that sin doesn't really matter because 'we can always offer a sacrifice', his heart is not right with God!
IF one sinned and then repented, would he offer the sacrifice as God directed? Of course, but it is to be offered from a broken and contrite heart! This was David's declaration after his sinful episode with Bathsheba: "O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise. For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise." (Psalm 51:15–17). Study also Jeremiah 7:22-23, Hosea 6:6, Amos 5:21–24, and Micah 6:6–8.
The great ritual, the public aspect of such worship, the perpetual and abundant offerings would have been a constant reminder of both the judgment of God and the mercy of God. Try and picture the sights, the sounds, the smells of such sacrifices. In these rituals and sacrifices, sin would have been shown to be 'exceedingly sinful'. Such would have turned the honest heart away from sin.
The perpetual offering of this again and again, generation after generation, simply showed that what writer of Hebrews would later declare: "... it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4). All these sacrifices for sin pointed to the greater and perfect sacrifice of God's son. The greatness of this sacrifice should not cause us to downplay the problem of sin in our lives, but cause us to see even more clearly how much God hates sin. It shows us what lengths God had to go to in order for our sins to actually be atoned for.
Seeing that it took the very death of Jesus, we that are forgiven should abhor any and all sin in our lives. We cannot continue in a non-chalant life of sin. We have been raised to walk in newness of life (cp. Romans 6). Thanks be to God for this unspeakable sacrifice!
Hugh DeLong
