SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON 10 - Lev. 1:1-3; 2:1-3; 3:1-5 - SET BEFORE GOD
INTRODUCTION: Today, for the remainder of this teaching quarter, we will cover the first of three lessons in the Book of Leviticus. Leviticus should be considered a continuation of Exodus. It represents a further and deeper unfolding of the divine-human relationship that began with the Ten Commandments God gave the people of Israel at Sinai. On the one hand, it assumes that Israel is sinful and impure (which it in fact was), while on the other hand, it describes how the Israelites can deal with their sin and their impurity in such a way that the holy God can dwell among them. The main emphasis in Leviticus is on the need for personal holiness of the people in response to a holy and almighty God, with the people's sin being atoned for through the offering of sacrifices. I will warn you that Leviticus can be a difficult book, mainly because we modern Bible readers have no firsthand practical experience with all the rituals and worship practices of the Tabernacle. We won't be studying Leviticus in great detail but will only be covering parts of selected chapters which are intended to give you a general working knowledge of the Book. The original Hebrew name for the Book is Vayikra, which literally means "He (God) called," and the name "Leviticus" is a Latin word that means "things concerning the Levites' (i.e., the priests). Today, in Chapters 1, 2, and 3, we're going to look at three of the five types of major offerings.
Note-Burnt Offerings: The opening three verses of Chapter 1 pertain to burnt offerings. The burnt offering is the most costly since it is completely burned up with nothing left over. It was a voluntary sacrifice-an act of freewill-that signified total self-surrender on the part of the person making it and was normally given for special occasions such as thanksgiving, sorrow, vows, and self-dedication. As a fore-shadowing, the burnt offerings point to the perfect surrender of Christ as exhibited by His life and death on earth and teaches the duty of self-sacrifice on our part.
Read Lev. 1:1 - THE LORD CALLED TO MOSES
1 Now the LORD called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying,
v. 1a: "Now the LORD called to Moses" - At this juncture, we come back into the story of the Israelites essentially where Exodus left off, with the people still camped at the foot of Mount Sinai, and they will remain here throughout the giving of Book of Leviticus, which is thought to have been written over a period of about 30 days.
v. 1b: "and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying" - While God ordinarily spoke to prophets through visions and dreams, its significant that He speaks directly to Moses-in person. We know from Ex. 39-40, that the Tabernacle had just been erected. It is referred to as the "tent of meeting" because it is the place where God meets the representatives of His people. Up to this point God has spoken from the Mountain, but now He speaks from the mercy-seat-the top of the Ark of the Covenant-in the holy of holies. By doing this, God has symbolically drawn near to His people, and the sacrificial system is now being instituted to provide the means by which His people can draw near to Him.
Read Lev. 1:2-3 - WHEN YOU BRING AN OFFERING TO THE LORD
2 "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When anyone of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or the flock. 3 If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without defect; he shall offer it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, so that he may be accepted before the LORD.
v. 2a: "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When anyone of you brings an offering to the LORD" - The sacrificial system wasn't new and had existed since the time of the Fall (e.g., Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac, etc.), but now God is laying down the Levitical Law to specify regulations for the use of the Israelite people. Any member of the congregation could now "bring an offering to the LORD" when he felt led to do so.
v. 2b: "you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or the flock" - The general idea here is that the "offering" must be a domesticated animal as opposed to a wild animal of some type. These animals would be part of an Israelite's animal stock used for fabric, milk and milk products, meat, and skins. Offering such an animal represented a big sacrifice for any Israelite family.
v. 3a: "If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd" - The word for "burnt" (Heb. olah), literally means "that which ascends," which implies it was to be entirely burned-up in an attitude of self-surrender in order to yield-up the entire being of the sacrificed animal.
v.3b: "he shall offer a male without defect" - This would be a young bull (cattle) or ram (sheep or goat), and "without defect" meant free of any deformities or injuries. God demanded the best.
v. 3c: he shall offer it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, so that he may be accepted before the LORD - The offering would be presented for acceptance at the door of the Tabernacle, where the person offering it (or a Levite) must kill it and divide the parts into separate portions.
Note-Grain Offerings: The next three verses in Chapter 2 illustrate the Grain Offering. This offering typically consisted of four elements: (1) fine flour, (2) oil, (3) frankincense, and (4) salt. The priests did not burn-up the entire offering but only a handful as a memorial to the LORD. The remainder was retained by the priests for their own use.
Read Lev. 2:1-3 - A GRAIN OFFERING TO THE LORD
1 'Now when anyone presents a grain offering as an offering to the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour, and he shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it. 2 He shall then bring it to Aaron's sons the priests; and he shall take from it his handful of its fine flour and of its oil, with all of its frankincense. And the priest shall offer it up in smoke as its memorial portion on the altar, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the LORD. 3 The remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons: a most holy part of the offerings to the LORD by fire.
v. 1: "Now when anyone presents a grain offering as an offering to the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour, and he shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it" - The grain offering represented the work of men's hands, the fruits of their labor and was offered as a symbol of service to God. Even the poorest among the Israelites could offer a grain offering and thus be able to give something to God. "Fine flour" would have been sifted and cleaned of bran and other impurities. The flour typically was mixed with a small amount of oil and frankincense, an expensive substance imported from Arabia.
v. 2a: "He shall then bring it to Aaron's sons the priests; and he shall take from it his handful of its fine flour and of its oil, with all of its frankincense" - This was the job of the priests, to take it in whatever form and mix the "handful" of flour with all of the frankincense.
v. 2b: "And the priest shall offer it up in smoke as its memorial portion on the altar, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the LORD" - The priest would then place the handful on the altar and burn it as a "memorial" (or commemoration) to the LORD. God received this bloodless sacrifice as an expression of thanksgiving, rather than atonement, and it symbolized thanks for God's provision. It points to the ultimate provision of God who loved us enough to send His only Son to die on a cross so that we may be forgiven of all our sin. Jesus proclaimed it this way, "I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats from this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I will give for the life of the world also is My flesh" (John 6:51).
v. 3: "The remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons: a most holy part of the offerings" - The remainder was given to the priests. After the handful that was burned, an omer (about a gallon in volume) remained. They were required to eat it entirely within the precincts of the Tabernacle because it was a part of the offering considered to be "most holy".
Note-Peace Offerings: The next five verses in Chapter 3 describe Peace Offerings. The purpose of this offering was not make peace with God but one intended to enjoy peace (or fellowship) with God. As a whole, the ritual symbolized a communion meal that was held between the offering person, the officiating priest, and God, and in OT times, it represented a way of affirming the covenant relationship between them.
Read Lev, 3:1-5 - A SACRIFICE OF PEACE OFFERINGS
1 'Now if his offering is a sacrifice of peace offerings, if he is going to offer from the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without defect before the LORD. 2 And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and slaughter it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, and Aaron's sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood around on the altar. 3 From the sacrifice of the peace offerings he shall then present an offering by fire to the LORD, the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, 4 and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, which is on the loins, and the lobe of the liver, which he shall remove with the kidneys. 5 Then Aaron's sons shall offer it up in smoke on the altar on the burnt offering, which is on the wood that is on the fire; it is an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the LORD.
v. 1: "Now if his offering is a sacrifice of peace offerings, if he is going to offer from the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without defect before the LORD" - Unlike the burnt offering the animal (a cow, sheep, or goat) could either be make or female, but the animal was still required to be "without defect." In terms of peace with God there is no distinction between male and female and all are welcome before God. Instead of being burned up, most of the peace offering was in the nature of a feast that was shared between the persons making the offering and the priests. Another part of the peace offering required the provision of unleaven bread made into cakes and leavened bread made into loaves (Lev. 7:11-13), sort of a buffet, so you might think of it as the OT Hebrew variation of a fellowship dinner. The greatest animal peace offering occurred when Solomon dedicated the Jerusalem Temple in 957 B.C., offering 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep (1 Kings 8:63). But the greatest of all peace offerings was made when Jesus gave Himself as a sacrifice on the cross, which not only paid the penalty for our sin but also made peace between the believer and God.
v. 2: And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and slaughter it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, and Aaron's sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood around on the altar" - Like the burnt offering, the person making the offering would slaughter the animal at the doorway of the Tabernacle. Laying his hand on the animal's head symbolically transferred their sin to the animal. After the animal was slaughtered, the priests went inside and sprinkled its blood around the altar.
vv. 3-4: "From the sacrifice of the peace offerings he shall then present an offering by fire to the LORD, the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, which is on the loins, and the lobe of the liver, which he shall remove with the kidneys" - The fatty covering over the entrails and organs was not to be eaten but be completely burned-up upon the altar of sacrifice. The fat, representing the choicest part of the offering, belonged to God and had to be sacrificed to Him as the One most worthy of honor.
v. 5: "Then Aaron's sons shall offer it up in smoke on the altar on the burnt offering, which is on the wood that is on the fire; it is an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the LORD" - The altar that received God's portion of the peace offering was the same altar that received the burnt offerings covered in Lev. 1:1-3, above. This is the part of the blessed feast shared with God, which rises up to heaven as a "soothing aroma." Symbolically, the burnt part of this offering serves as the foundation for the peace offering by representing the self-surrender that leads to peace, and taking it a step further, the self-sacrifice of Jesus on the cross as the source of the peace that now exists between God and man, as Paul observed, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our LORD Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1).
APPLICATION-Expressions of Personal Holiness
PRAYER: Dear God in heaven, as we come to Your presence this morning, we thank and praise You that as NT Christians, we have immediate access to Your Throne of Grace, and most importantly, that you hear our prayers and will answer them according to Your sovereign will and timing. As we delve further into this Book of Leviticus, Lord, all of the rites, rituals, and sacrifices of this ancient book seem very strange to us, but we know that they really point toward the sacrifice that Your Son Jesus Christ made for us on the cross, and for that reason we need to study and try our best to understand it. More than any other thing, God, I pray that it will teach us the value and importance of self-sacrifice in terms of the time, talent, and resources that we are willing to devote to the furtherance of your kingdom. And I pray for all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the perfector and finisher of our faith, AMEN.
