Good evening y’all. Welcome back from our spring break.

Today we start our journey into the book of Leviticus 🙂

In today’s chapter, we are introduced to the concept of burnt offerings. Actually all the chapters for this week are about different types of offerings.

Holy Spirit we ask for Your help, for without You we can do nothing. Open our hearts to receive from You today and flood our hearts with Your truth. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. Be blessed 🙂

God gave Moses instructions on what an acceptable burnt offering is. I asked myself, what was the need for the burnt offering? I realized the reason God was asking for the burnt offering in the first place was because of their sins. This was a sacrifice that would make them acceptable before God. We need to understand that our God is a Holy God. He cannot dwell where there is sin or iniquity.

I observed the following:

1) God gave them specific instructions on what, how and when to present a burnt offering that would be acceptable in His sight. As I was reading the instructions, it suddenly occurred to me that we cannot serve God on our terms. It has to be on God’s terms. He calls the shots and we have to live by his terms if we want to truly enjoy His blessings. We would find that His terms are not burdensome or hard to meet; actually He supplies all we need to meet His terms. That’s how wonderful God is.

2) The person offering the burnt offering has to to place his hands on the head of the animal, that way their sins are transferred unto the animal. The animal takes their place. instead of them dying: it dies in their stead.
“The person bringing it is to lay his hand upon its head, and it then becomes his substitute: the death of the animal will be accepted by God instead of the death of the man who brings it, as the penalty for his sins”.( Lev 1: 4 TLB)

3) The person bringing the burnt offering has to bring it of his own free will. the person must realise their sinful state and need for atonement.
“If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord”.(Lev 1: 3 NKJV)

4) The animal has to be male and without blemish or physical defect.

5) The blood is to be sprinkled around the altar 

So how does all of this apply to us today?

In likewise manner, Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away our sins. “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1: 29 MSG). In the same way the animals had to be slaughtered, so Jesus was led like a lamb to the slaughter. He was killed and his blood shed for us and atoned for our sins. At that point on calvary, He took all our sins upon him. What you and I should have had to pay for, was all transferred unto Him. I can only imagine how heavy aburden that must have been. The weight of all our sin was on His shoulders. He died and offered his life as a sacrifice unto God so that we can be acceptable to God. Jesus Christ is the ultimate sacrifice.

“And He [[a]that same Jesus Himself] is the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins, and not for ours alone but also for [the sins of] the whole world”. (1 John 2: 2 AMP)

“For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for He Himself is fair and just, and He declares sinners to be right in His sight when they believe in Jesus”. (Romans 3: 25 – 26 NLT)

I found an extract from bible.org that sheds more light on the purpose of burnt offering and how it applies to us today

“One of the unique contributions of the whole burnt offering is that it illustrates sacrifice in its purest form. A very valuable animal is given up wholly to God. Neither the offerer nor the priest gains much from the offering, other than the benefit of being found acceptable to God, which, in the final analysis, is the ultimate benefit.

This kind of sacrifice is seldom practiced, and even when it is we may wonder at the wisdom of such waste. The widow who gave her last two mites might be criticized today for her lack of prudence in failing to plan and prepare for the future. The woman who poured out her expensive perfume, anointing the feet of the Lord, was accused of wastefulness. And so we tend to give our worn out old things to God, while we keep what is new and best for ourselves. We know little of giving our best to God, with no hope of anything beyond His approval.

But this kind of sacrifice is what God calls for from those who would be true disciples. Disciples are those who give up all to follow Christ. They are to count the cost of discipleship, and then to gladly pay it. When we give ourselves to God, as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1-2), we are to do so totally, without reserve, so as to be pleasing to Him. May God enable us to practice this kind of sacrifice in our own lives”. (The Law of Burnt Offerings (Leviticus 1:1-17), Bob Deffinbaugh, https://bible.org/seriespage/2-law-burnt-offerings-leviticus-11-17)

I leave us to ponder and mull on Romans 12: 1- 2

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you”. (MSG)

***With God all things are possible***