Bible Readings
Reading 61: Yahweh teaches the way to approach Him is by sacrifice
Read Leviticus 1:1–17.
Today we move on to the third book of the Bible. The book of Leviticus contains many instructions that Yahweh gave to the people regarding how to come before Him and worship Him. It is a book that is most helpful to the priests who can use it to guide the people on what they should do. In a sense, it can be considered the priests’ handbook, as they lead the people to worship Yahweh and teach them how to live as God’s people.
Yahweh taught the people about the different kinds of sacrifices that they were to bring to Him. In today’s passage, we read about one special type of offering known as the burnt offering. It was so-called because the animal was to be completely burnt.
God said that the people could bring Him an offering from (i) the herd (e.g., the bull), (ii) the flock (e.g., sheep or goat) or (iii) birds (e.g., turtledove or pigeon). The range of animals permitted were of different costs, with the bull being the most costly and the birds being the least. God made it such that all people, whether richer or poorer, would be able to make this burnt offering.
However, they could not just bring any animal. God specifically said that:
The bull, sheep or goat had to be a male animal without any defects.
The person bringing the offering must lay his or her hand on the head of the animal, signifying that the animal is taking on the sin of the person.
The animal is then to be killed (by slitting its throat) and its blood drained.
The priest would then splash the blood of the animal against the sides of the altar.
Parts of the animal that would have come into contact with dung (such as the legs and the inner parts like the digestive system) had to be washed.
After that, the animal was burnt completely on the altar.
While there are slightly different instructions given for the bull, animals from the flock and the birds, Yahweh says that through these burnt offerings, He would accept the death of the animal as a substitute death for the person. The animal’s spilt blood would purify the person, making the person right with God.
Yahweh used these very visual instructions to teach the people many truths.
Yahweh taught them that He is an all-righteous God.
Because He is all-righteous, He taught the people that sin separates them from Him.
They cannot come to Him in their own manmade ways and with their own ideas; God has to give the instructions on how man can approach Him.
To approach Him, they needed to come with a blood sacrifice, that is, an animal has to die, shedding its blood. It is the blood that purifies a person, making the person acceptable before God.
Yahweh was actually showing people how He planned to save people from eternal death: a suitable substitute would die in the place of the guilty person.
While Yahweh was teaching mankind that He would accept a substitutionary death, He would accept animals as temporary substitutes. However, the real substitute had to be a real man.
We know that these substitutionary sacrificial animals were pointing towards how Yahweh would later in history send Jesus as the sinless, perfect, substitute human, who would die in the place of sinful mankind. Yahweh was teaching the people that anyone who trusted in Him, He would count them as righteous and save them from eternal death.
And later, when Jesus finally came as a man and died for people, the salvation information (the gospel) became more specific: anyone who puts their faith in Jesus as their substitute, would be counted as righteous before God and be saved from eternal death.
But during the time of Israel’s nation building, when Yahweh was giving them their sacrificial system, He was already giving them a “visual aid” to help explain these spiritual truths.
Today, let’s thank Yahweh once again that He sent His chosen substitute lamb, the God-man Jesus, to die as the perfect, sinless substitute in our place, so that we can be counted as righteous before God. It is because of Jesus’ death on the cross for us that we can have a relationship with Him and eternal life. Let us never take this great gift of Jesus for granted.