Sacrifice

Leviticus

My very first job was working at a skate shop. My tasks were to keep the store clean and make sure the shoes were put away and organized. I can be honest, I hated every second working in the shoes. I had 100′s and 100′s of pairs of shoes that were shuffled through and I would have to straighten them up just for them to get messy again.  It was somewhat overwhelming sometimes where I did not even want to think about doing the shoes because of all the hard work required. I even would think, “Where do I begin?” 

We finished the amazing book of Exodus and now on a new adventure through the book of Leviticus. It is easy to get overwhelmed and somewhat lost with the customs of Israel. We may even feel where to begin with Leviticus. It is a great book showing God’s redemptive plan foreshadowing Christ. The book of Leviticus mentions the word “blood” 88 times and the word “holy” or “holiness” over 80 times. This book is showing how the shedding of blood answered the call for holiness. 

The First of Five Offerings

The tabernacle is already built and in place and the sacrifices can begin but before they do there needs to be some instructions on how to do them and the purpose of each sacrifice. The burnt offering was given by the party by bringing a male animal without blemish. The male animal was either a bull, sheep, or goat. The means of this offering was so one could make a plea before the Lord. Could you imagine if everytime you needed to ask your parents for something you would have to do 20 push-ups or something like that. The burnt offering was so someone could make a plea before God and it involved the covering of their sin. 

Hands were laid upon the week, helpless animal. This was to help identify the animal as belonging to the one offering the sacrifice. The sacrifice was the cost to the person offering it. They would lose a male animal, that was without blemish. This was an important thing while having a herd of animals. The animal was serving as the atonement or covering of sin done by the offender. The helpless, innocent animal would take the wrath for the persons sin. When this animal was offered up as atonement for sin it was a pleasing aroma to the Lord because blood was shed and sin was covered. 

Blood

Blood was important to Israel because is showed cleansing. This was something that was not shared by the surrounding nations of Israel. The blood of an animal was the life of the animal. Sin or disobedience from God was done and because of that there needed to be payment. Someone had to pay for the consequence of sin. If there was no sacrifice then the person would have to die. But since there was an innocent animal ready to shed its life for your life then it was considered ok, but only tell the next time around. It would have to be done over and over again.  This is a picture of God’s plan with his son Christ. Jesus was the innocent man led to die and shed his blood to cover our sins. We all have sinned and there needs to be payment of sin. Animals would only go for so long but they never truly satisfied the payment to God, it was a nice aroma to God but never satisfying. Christ died in our place like the animal but this time it was forever. God was pleased in the blood of his Son, He was satisfied. We now can have everlasting forgiveness. We do not have to offer a sheep or goat to cover our wrong. What was done on Calvary is everlasting. There is victory in Jesus Christ (1st Corinthians 15:55-56).