The Burnt Offering

by PRASHER, G. | Category: General | Jun 1957

Though the early chapters of the book of Leviticus may appear to be difficult and dry to the younger students of the Holy Scriptures, yet to those who meditate upon their shadows are disclosed some of the very precious truths that relate to the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the offerings of this book this is particularly true.

In this article we draw attention to the burnt offering, that among the offerings with which God commences, and that in which, as is generally accepted, we are presented with shadows of Christ as He gave Himself to God as an Offering and a Sacrifice for an odour of a sweet smell.

Firstly we note the opening words of Leviticus 1. "And the LORD called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tent of meeting" (verse 1). Here we find the LORD in His house, a house that had been built both as to material and design in agreement with the divine requirement. God was the Architect, but the materials, the craftsmanship and the assembling were the responsibility of men and women who learned the will of God and carried it into effect. This certainly has its voice for us today.

Attention has frequently been drawn to the contrast between God's speakings here and those on Mount Sinai. There are no terrors here of "a mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and ... blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words ... and so fearful was the appearance, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake." God has taken up His place over the mercy-seat between the cherubim, and in grace and mercy He can communicate His will for His people through His servant Moses.

Still, be it remembered, He is always the " thrice holy" God, and approach to Him must ever be marked with that reverence and godly fear which are due to Him before whom the seraphim veil their faces and their feet. Leviticus 10 makes very clear that presumptuous approach will be met with devouring fire.

The worshipper who came to God could bring his oblation from the herd, the flock, or the turtledoves' and pigeons. This was a divine provision to meet the condition of the offerer; and it speaks to us of varying apprehensions of the Person and work of Christ. All have not the same spiritual attainment, but it is pleasing to know that the LORD is willing to accept from us "according as a man hath, not according as he hath not."

If his oblation be a burnt offering of the herd, he shall offer it a male without blemish." ... male of the herd was the highest in value of the offerings shadowing Christ. Whether from herd or flock the burnt offering must be a male, and so the bullock speaks of the Lord Jesus in the highest aspect of His work on the cross of Calvary. While it is preciously true that Christ died for our sins and trespasses it is not this that is set forth in the shadows of the burnt offering. Rather it is Christ who came forth to do the will of God, going up to the cross to give Himself in sacrifice to God. It has been fittingly said that the will of God included giving Himself to save sinners, but the type in the burnt offering, though atonement is made, does not raise the matter of sin, it is a sweet savour offering ascending as incense unto God.

What is of particular delight to the offerer is that he has acceptance in the oblation. " It shall be accepted for him." "He shall offer it at the door of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD " (verses 8, 4). Perfection marked the offering, and the worshipper as he stood by the altar could rejoice to know that he stood before God in that perfection. In a loftier sense today we who lay our hands on the head of our Victim can rejoice that "He hath made us accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1.5 A.V.). In this connexion we read, "as He is, even so are we in this world" (1 John 4.17). If this were more fully apprehended how our love for Him would be increased! What room is there for fear, as John writes of it, when we realize that all the perfections of Christ are reckoned unto us? He has been made unto us "wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption." All that God could wish to find in His people He finds as He sees us in Christ our great Burnt Offering. Doubtless a similar truth is expressed in the word of God through Balaam concerning Israel, "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel " (Numbers 23. 21).

Before we look into the death of the victim in Leviticus 1 let us note the importance of the command, "he shall offer it at the door of the tent of meeting" (verse 3). There at the door of God's House was His altar, and the Israelite was enjoined not to offer his oblations elsewhere. There was one God, one House, and one altar. Alas, that Israel failed to observe this command ! " Though I write for him My law in ten thousand precepts, they are accounted as a strange thing," said God; and, "Because Ephraim multiplied altars to sin, altars have been unto him to sin" (Hosea 8.11, 12). The truth concerning a Place, a Sacrifice, and a Priest calls for our close attention.

"He shall kill the bullock before the LORD: and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall present the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar, ... and lay wood in order upon the fire." We should note that the blood of the burnt offering victim was not taken inside the holy place. Only that of the sin offering was taken inside, in which case the body of the victim was burned without the camp in a clean place. There in the sight of the offerer the blood was applied, and we can think of him like ourselves as we sing,

We hear the words of love,

We gaze upon the blood,

We see the mighty Sacrifice,

And we have peace with God."

It has been said, "The burnt offering is but the unclothing of the blessed Christ of God, revealing Him to our gaze in these shadows as God sees and knows Him." This is beautifully true, and the first matter mentioned after the sprinkling of the blood is, "he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into its pieces." The removal of the skin, and the severing of the pieces was the operation of the knife in the skilled hand of the offerer. The sons of Aaron, the priests, laid the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that was on the fire which was upon the altar. The inwards and the legs were washed with water, and the whole was burned on the altar, for an ascending offering, and for a sweet savour unto the LORD.

How striking that the Holy Spirit mentions in particular the head! The head being the seat of the mind and thoughts, which find expression in the will, takes our thoughts to Him who said,

"I delight to do Thy will, 0 My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart."

The lovely story given us concerning Christ in the New Testament reveals how completely the will of the Lord Jesus was subject to the will of His Father. The scene in Gethsemane comes readily to our mind. There, faced as He was with the ordeal of the cross, we hear Him say, "Howbeit not what I will, but what Thou wilt" (Mark 14.86). He could say, "I can of Myself do nothing ... because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me" (John 5.30).

The fat was next placed on the altar. Here we are caused to consider the inner perfections of God's beloved Son, those hidden energies, His intrinsic worth. David cried, " Behold Thou desirest truth in the inward (covered, concealed) parts." As the fat was placed on the altar God saw the shadow of His loyal, devoted Son, in whose heart was the law of God. He always did the things that were pleasing to His Father. His meat was to do the will of Him that sent Him, and to accomplish His work.

It was He who could say,

Judge Me, 0 LORD, for I have walked in Mine integrity

I have trusted also in the LORD without wavering.

Examine Me, 0 LORD, and prove Me;

Try My reins and My heart.

For Thy lovingkindness is before Mine eyes

And I have walked in Thy truth" (Psalm 26.1-8).

As we view the head and the fat on the altar we think of the mind of Christ and the heart of Christ, that mind which was so lowly that He stooped down from the throne of God, right down to the death of the cross: that heart which throbbed with an attachment to His Father which is beyond all human comprehension. As the fat was all for God in the offerings so we judge it tells of that which God found in His Son, a depth of delight which was infinite, which God alone could appreciate. Would to God that in our case as servants of God our minds and hearts were more in unison in the thoughts and ways that give Him pleasure!

The inwards and the legs were washed with water and then put on the altar, and thus the whole of the animal was offered unto God (the skin excepted, which was given to the priest). This washing of inwards and legs brings the type to agree with the great Antitype, who was ever clean both inwardly and outwardly before His God and Father. The legs cause us to trace afresh the pathway which He trod. There was no journey too great or difficult, wherever the will of God lay He was ever ready to go. If it were to meet a poor leper, touch him, and cleanse him; if it were to show pity and power towards a widow whose son was on the way to burial; if it were to give His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair-wherever His Father's will lay He was ready to run in the way of His commands. Lovely are His words in John 14.81,

"But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence."

All these pieces were laid upon the wood in order upon the fire, and the fire fed upon the sacrifice all through the night, and throughout the day. The fire of the altar was to be kept burning. There were the morning and the evening burnt offerings. The sweet fragrance of the morning sacrifice had not died away till the evening fragrance began to ascend. Thus God had the constant delight of feeding on the sweet incense cloud that went up from the copper altar. It was the sweet savour of Christ. In His life this caused God at the commencement of the Lord's public path to exclaim, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." It was this that occasioned the voice out of heaven, near the time of the cross, "I have both glorified it (His name), and will glorify it again" (John 12.28). The life and death of the Lord Jesus was one continuous ascending offering-the fragrance of His life, and the fragrance of His death. There would appear to be a connexion between the morning and evening sacrifice and the fact that the Lord was crucified at the third hour, and died at the ninth hour of the day.

Lastly we note that God had a care for the ashes of the burnt offering. The priest with appropriate garments had to take up the ashes from the hearth of the altar, place them on the east side of the altar, change his garments, and carry forth the ashes to a clean place without the camp. Here in shadow we trace Nicodemus with Joseph doing that great work of taking down the precious body of the Lord Jesus, and carrying it when anointed and wrapped in the new linen clothes to a clean place-a new tomb, wherein was never man yet laid. Thus morning by morning during the desert journey God saw in shadow what was to be done to His Son. There was a daily rehearsal in shadow of that great event. Glad in heart are we that that tomb could not retain God's Son. The third morning He arose in the power of an endless life. Now He is on the throne above, and continues to delight the heart of His God.

PRASHER, G. | Jun 1957
General