Leviticus
1 – 3
Now we start the Law as God told Moses. Verse 1:2 opens with
instructions on sacrifices:
Moses, I want you to go talk
with the Israelites and tell them how to perform ritual offerings:
Any time one of you brings an offering to Me, you must bring the offering from
the animals of either the herd or the flock.
The first instruction is for Moses to “talk” with the
Israelites and not just order. Ritual offerings and sacrifices are something
the Christian Church does not participate in and therefore is foreign to us
other than scripture. But these are the keys to understanding the significance
of Jesus dying on the cross.
Verse 1:4 opens our eyes on how we should confess to Jesus:
The person offering the
sacrifice shall place his hand on the head of the living animal,
and the offering will be accepted to atone for the person’s sins.
This is the key to Jesus dying on the cross; he took this
one sacrifice on himself. He was the only pure and perfect sacrifice for our
sins. As you read you will notice God wants the best and not a blemished
sacrifice and this is the significance of Jesus being the final one. We live in
a time where this would be considered barbaric and hence why many don’t
understand why Jesus had to die, but reading these chapters gives one insight
to the whys.
Verse 2:14 talks about a grain offering:
If you present a grain offering
from the first ripe grain of your harvest to Me, bring fresh new grain, crushed
and roasted in the fire.
Often we look at sacrifices and we need to go back to Cain
and Abel to understand the significance. Why was Cain’s offering not pleasing
to God yet Abel’s was? The reason was Cain’s offering was “some of the
crops he had grown from the ground,” while Abel’s was “the
choicest cuts from the firstborn of his flock.” It wasn’t that Cain was
offering grain, it was that he was not offering his “first ripe grain” but
rather what he had, like an afterthought.
Verse 3:1 again focuses on the quality of the offering:
Eternal One: Any time
one of you presents a sacrifice from the herd as a peace offering, you must
offer only an unblemished cow or bull before Me.
The key is in giving to God don’t give your torn worn out
things, but rather your best. God did this for you in His son Jesus, so why to
follow His example? Now I am NOT saying sacrifice YOUR sons, but rather give
your first and best!