The Burnt Offering

by R.F. LUNDWILL,Vancouver, B.C. | Category: General | Mar 1962

The offerings to God are mentioned many times in the Scriptures and the burnt offering frequently. Thus we are reminded of the very prominent place which God has given them in His word.

How delightful an experience it would have been to us if we could have listened to Christ's words to the two disciples, to whom He joined Himself on their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus! He had been raised from the dead, having accomplished the work of redemption, with all its infinite cost and suffering to Himself. Now He opened up the Scriptures to them, and "beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself" (Luke 24.27).

The order given to the offerings is most instructive and important. In Leviticus God begins with the burnt offering and ends with the trespass offering. Man commences where God ends. This is also characteristic of the Tabernacle. The Scriptures begin with the Most Holy Place, where God's Shekinah glory was hidden from the eyes of men, except those of the High Priest, who entered the Holy of Holies once a year.

The burnt offering is the "approach offering" or "acceptance offering." A beautiful word appears in Jeremiah 30.21, 22, "For who is he that hath had boldness to approach unto Me? saith the LORD. And ye shall be My people, and I will be your God." In the burnt offering we view the intense devotion of Christ to the Father's will. It is only as we know Christ as set forth in the offerings that we can rightly estimate sin. Indeed, whether we view ourselves in our natural state of sin, or view our own lack of obedience and devotion, we see all our needs met by Christ's perfection and sacrifice.

The Hebrew word for "burnt offering" is derived from a word which means " that which ascends." It is to be distinguished from the other offerings in that the whole of it was consumed upon the altar, and none of it was eaten by the offerer or priest. It is linked with the meal offering and the peace offering in that all three are "sweet savour offerings." The word "sweet n (Hebrew Niychoach) means "restful" or "delightful." Thus it was that God found rest in anticipation of Calvary, where He found rest in the complete obedience and devotion of His Son. His rest had been broken in Eden, when Adam fell through disobedience. After the Flood we read, "And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled the sweet savour" (Genesis 8.20, 21).

It was man's acknowledgement of his own deficiency, in contrast to God's standard of perfection in service and devotion. Thus he realized he needed a wholly acceptable offering, which when offered would rise as a sweet smelling savour unto God.

As a result of man's fall through disobedience in Eden, God lost the priceless joy of communion which He had enjoyed with His creature. Whenever an offering was made and the "sweet savour" of this offering ascended unto God, God found rest and delight, and this anticipated the time when this communion would be restored through the obedience of His Son. The Lord said prophetically, "Then I restored that which I took not away" (Psalm 69. 4). Further, we would note the words of Leviticus 7.8, "And the priest that offereth any man's burnt offering, even the priest shall have to himself the skin of the burnt offering which he hath offered." Skin is a covering. Thus we perceive that with every offering God looked back to the moment when He lost fellowship with His creature, and forward to the time when this fellowship would be restored. So on every occasion when the offerings are made by redeemed man, in sincerity, we view the marvellous devotion of Christ and God's claims fully met by Him at Calvary

As one reads the instructions contained in Leviticus in connexion with the offerings, it is doubtful if all Israel entered into their meaning. "And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgements: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath spoken will we do" (Exodus 24.8). "And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD" (verse 5). The blessings of God's people would be secured in their obedience to the words of the covenant and would be appreciated and understood accordingly. Alas! the people failed grievously through disobedience and through blindness, but Israel's blindness is to be done away in a happy day that is yet to come. Thus in the prophecy of Ezekiel we have offerings referred to, in the restoration of Israel, when God's people shall take their rightful place in the midst of the nations, and Christ shall rule in Zion. Meanwhile God sees a Holy Nation in this present dispensation, in which we live, a people who were no people, entering in with joy into His courts, and rejoicing in His habitation. As the praises of His people ascend, God is delighted with the " sweet savour" which arises and is presented by Christ, our Great High Priest.

The burnt offering was offered by David, after the sad experience of God's displeasure in the numbering of His people. 75,000 fell of Israel, due to the pestilence, an expression of God's judgement. David was instructed of the LORD to set up an altar in the threshing floor of Oman, the Jebusite. Oman offered David everything freely. The answer of David contains a deep lesson for us. "And king David said to Oman, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer a burnt offering without cost" (1 Chronicles 21.24). Though the value of the offering was to be in accordance with the means of the offerer, it could only be acceptable when a sense of sacrifice was realized by the offerer, in symbol of the infinite cost in the sacrifice of God's Son. In the region of the hill country of Moriah where the temple was built by Solomon, David's son, and where a thousand burnt offerings were offered at its dedication, was the place of the Lord's sacrifice, and where Christ shall ascend His throne. Then the full fruition of His work at Calvary will be realized, and the great cost borne home to God's people, Israel.

The offerings of burnt offerings are cited on striking occasions in the history of God's people. At times when His people cried out for deliverance from bondage, God answered that plea in coming down in wondrous grace to deliver them: at times of triumph and dedication such as the close of David's reign recorded in 1 Chronicles 29, and at the completion of the temple by Solomon recorded in 1 Kings 8.

A remarkable instance is recorded of the days of Hezekiah, who was used of God to lead Judah into a period of revival after they had passed through one of the dark periods of their history under his father Ahaz. At this time Israel had gone into captivity to the Assyrians, and yet a light remained in Jerusalem in accordance with God's promise in 1 Kings 11.36. Hezekiah opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and restored the worship. "And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD began also, and the trumpets, together with the instruments of David king of Israel" (2 Chronicles 29.27).

As a result of Israel's departure from the LORD and the apostasy which was making deeper inroads into the lives of God's people, God declared His displeasure through the prophet Isaiah. God could take no pleasure in their offerings, because of the sad condition of the offerers. "Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats" (Isaiah 1.10, 11). Israel had sunk to such a level of apostasy, that it was necessary to expose the emptiness of their religious formality. God must have sighed for the time when all offerings and sacrifices would be done away in the one sacrifice of Christ upon Calvary.

When we come to comments on the instructions found in Leviticus 1, we note the creatures acceptable for sacrifice, e.g., the bullock or ox, the sheep or lamb, the goat, turtle dove or young pigeon. Whether we view the offering in expression of the offerer's sense of appreciation, or the characteristics of the offering, each offering was acceptable to God in anticipation of Christ's work on Calvary.

There are seven features of the offering, as follows

1.v.8.The kind of offering.

2.v.4.The laying on of the hand.

8.v.5.Slaying of the victim.

4.v.5.Sprinkling of the blood.

5.v.6.Separation of the pieces.

6.v.9.The washing of the inwards and the legs.

7.v.9.The burning of the whole.

(This is according to the A.V.). Christ offered Himself as a burnt offering, not through any coercion, but because He delighted to do the will of His Father. His words which express this fact are found in John 10.17, 18. "Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself."

In the laying on of the hand we view the offerer as one with the offering, and thus fully identified with it. Here we see the sense of the offerer's nothingness. He must be entirely devoid of personal claims. We view our own unworthiness, in contrast to the value of Christ's intrinsic holiness.

The depth of our entering into the sense of the offerer slaying the victim is expressed in the manner in which we draw near in thought to Calvary at the Breaking of the Bread. How fully do we appreciate its meaning, in our meditation on a Lord's day morning? We trace His steps to the cross ; we oft refer to His cry of triumph, " It is finished." How often we take one lingering look in hushed silence, as we view His intense suffering! A longer look at Calvary would touch our hearts with a deeper realization of what Christ endured, the excruciating pain of physical suffering; the more intense suffering when He experienced the withdrawal of God's face, as God's wrath was outpoured upon Him. Should it not then melt our heart and cause the tears to flow? Then we could sing with understanding and heart affection the lovely words of the hymn:

"As we survey the wondrous cross

On which the Lord of glory died,

Our richest gains we count but loss,

And pour contempt an all our pride."

When we consider the "sprinkling of the blood" we might be taken up with the value of Christ's death. It should be borne in mind that the priests appeared as worshippers, clothed in garments of glory and beauty. When we view Christ as the burnt offering, we must not be occupied with our guilt, but rather with the perfection and acceptability of Christ. The thought of atonement in connexion with the "burnt offering" presents Christ's willingness and capacity to meet God's claims rather than man's inability to atone for himself.

The offering was to be without blemish. The flaying of the victim, and the washing with water revealed the perfection of the offering. All was perfect to the minutest detail. Thus we see the truth of Christ's inward perfection. We would do well to meditate upon His perfections, to search them out, and thus come into a fuller knowledge and appreciation of the spotlessness of Christ, in contrast to the imperfections of men.

The priests laid all upon the altar, and then watched the smoke of the accepted sacrifice ascending unto God. It was to be a continual burnt offering. It was to burn all night unto the morning. It is still night, and Christ is disallowed of men and rejected, but it is God's desire and pleasure that the "sweet savour" of Christ's offering should ascend continually, until the morning. The morning will come, and then our praises will still ascend, for we shall be with Christ and we shall be like Him. But meanwhile our praises should rise in deep appreciation of Him, our whole burnt offering. "Behold, bless ye the LORD, all ye servants of the LORD, which by night stand in the house of the LORD. Lift up your hands to the sanctuary, and bless ye the LORD" (Psalm 134.1, 2).

R.F. LUNDWILL,Vancouver, B.C. | Mar 1962
General