Today’s reading includes Leviticus 7:28-9:6, Mark 3:31-4:25, Psalm 37:12-29, Proverbs 10:5.

Today we will take a look at the Sin offering required by God in the Old Testament.

A Sin offering was a sacrifice, made according to the Levitical law, and it provided atonement for sin.  What does the word atonement mean?   The dictionary says that it is reparation for a wrong or injury; reparation or expiation for sin.  Another definition I saw in the dictionary was this:

• (the Atonement)the reconciliation of God and humankind through Jesus Christ.

In the other definitions, the word was a lower-case word. In this final definition, it was capitalized.  It was a proper noun.  Proper names and titles are among the proper nouns and this small detail points to a large truth.  The Atonement was a person, Jesus Christ.

The Hebrew phrase for “Sin offering” literally means “fault offering.” The sin offering was made for sins committed in ignorance, or unintentional sins.  The sin offering was a picture of what was to come in the sacrifice of Lamb of God, when Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world.  The laws found in Leviticus required that the animal be without blemish.  The law also required that the sacrifice be made as a public display, just as Jesus was publically slain.  Leviticus 4:12 tells us that the Levitical Sin offering was required to be taken outside the camp, just as Jesus, the Perfect Sin offering, was slain outside the city gates.

¹² So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people ^pthrough his own blood. 

                                                                        Hebrews 13:12

And of course, the Sin offering required the shedding of blood.  Why?  We find the answer in Hebrews 9.

²² Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

                                                                        Hebrews 9:22

The Levitical law required blood to be shed for forgiveness and purification to be revealed.  And Jesus provided that blood.  He fulfilled the law so that we would not have to. Let’s look at Leviticus 6:27 to glean a powerful truth.

²⁷ Whatever touches any of the flesh will become holy, and if any of the blood is spattered on a garment, you must wash it in the sanctuary area.

When I saw this verse, my mind immediately went to the story in the New Testament of the woman with the issue of blood.  Do you remember the story?

As Jesus went with him, he was surrounded by the crowds. ⁴³ A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding,^[g] and she could find no cure. ⁴⁴ Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe. Immediately, the bleeding stopped.

⁴⁵ “Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

Everyone denied it, and Peter said, “Master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you.”

⁴⁶ But Jesus said, “Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.” ⁴⁷ When the woman realized that she could not stay hidden, she began to tremble and fell to her knees in front of him. The whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched him and that she had been immediately healed.⁴⁸ “Daughter,” he said to her, “your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

First, let’s look at the woman and her problem.  She had an issue of blood.  She had female problems—and big ones. What does that holy twelve number represent here?  Normally, 12 represents the family of God, and indeed the deeper roots of her problem is a problem for all of the family of God.  She needed a savior to heal her and lift her out of the terrible pain she lived in day in and day out.  For 12 long years, she suffered.  Not only with the discomfort, but also with the isolation.  In those days, when a female was menstruating, they had to separate themselves from their families.  They had to separate themselves from their husbands.  They were basically banned from society until their cycle ended and they went through the process of being cleansed.  But she never stopped bleeding.  Her cycle never ended, and she was never able to be cleansed.  And one more tragedy.  She could never be fruitful and multiply, as the covenant and command insisted.  Her physical issues kept her from physical fruitfulness, and the grief and pain kept her from spiritual fruitfulness.  But then, she heard about Jesus.  He had healed others, maybe He could heal her.  I picture her pushing through the crowd, reaching out to touch Him.  “If I can only touch Him, even the end of His garment, maybe I will be healed.”  And Jesus felt her deliberate touch and felt the healing power leave His body.  When she heard Him speak, when she knew she had been healed, what could she do, but fall on her knees at His Holy feet, and publically declare her healing.  He called her daughter, for she was now part of His family, for she believed. And the Prince of Peace sent her on her way with peace.  She was now free to live.

I love this story.  I can picture it so vividly in my mind.  But what does this have to do with the sin offerings of Leviticus?  First, we can’t forget main purpose of the book of Leviticus.  It was a book of instruction for the Levites, for the priests of the Lord.  Though, the woman may not have known it with her head, her heart recognized who walked before her that day—the greatest High Priest, the One who had on the spiritual linen robe.  He could go to God on her behalf.  And not only did her spirit recognize the greatest High Priest before her, her spirit also recognized the sacrificial Lamb.  The greatest and final Sin Offering walked right in front of her, and she had to reach out and touch Him, for “Whatever touches any of the flesh will become holy”.  She reached out to touch the Holy One and in the process, she became holy.  Her unclean-ness symbolized by her issue of blood could not stay once she had become holy, once she had touched Him.

Of course, she had no way of truly knowing how that would all turn out.  That is why it was called faith.  Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”  Do you need healing?  Do you need the great High Priest to go to the Throne on your behalf?  Do you need to touch the holy Lamb of God, so that you could be made holy, too?  The correct answer to all of those questions for each one of us is the same—a resounding yes!  I need that and you need that.  So, today, let’s reach out and touch the Lamb.  Let’s reach for Him in faith, knowing He is ready and willing to heal and help us.  The work has been done, the sin offering has been made.

Today’s reading includes Leviticus 6:1-7:27, Mark 3:7-30, Psalm 37:1-11, Proverbs 10:3-4.

Today’s reading describes the different types of offerings the priests were required to make.  Reading through all the details of each made me thankful, once again, that I am living by the New Covenant, rather than by the Old Covenant.  But as always, the Old Testament is Jesus concealed and the New Testament is Jesus revealed. When we study the Old Testament, we can find Jesus over and over.  The New Testament message is so much richer when we see how Jesus fulfilled the law for us.  These were the offerings mentioned in today’s reading–for the next couple of days, we will look at each one of these and their symbolism: The Burnt offering, the Grain offering, the Sin offering, The Guilt offering, and the Peace offering.

The Burnt offering, the Sin offering, and the Guilt offering all required shedding of blood.  The Grain offering and the Peace offering all required the burning and baking of holy ingredients. The Burnt offering was also that of dedicating something to the Lord.  It was first seen in the story of Noah:

²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose.²¹ And the Lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things. ²² As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.”

We also see the burnt offering in the story of Abraham.  We have already studied about Abraham being asked to sacrifice Isaac and we know that this was a preview of the fact that God the Father was going to sacrifice His only Son.  But I had not noticed that it was a burnt offering which God asked of Abraham.  This is what The Holman Concise Bible Commentary had to say about this:

Within a few years the Lord tested Abraham by commanding him to offer his covenant son as a                         burnt offering.  The intent was to teach Abraham that covenant blessing requires total covenant commitment and obedience.  The narrative also stresses that covenant obedience brings fresh bestowal of covenant blessings. Abraham’s willingness to surrender his son guaranteed all the more the fulfillment of God’s promises to him. 

The Hebrew word for “burnt offering” is pronounced “olah” means to “ascend,“ or literally to “go up in smoke.” The smoke from the sacrifice ascended to God, and was “a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord” (Leviticus 1:9). The Hebrew synomyn for “burnt offering” also meant “complete” and the burnt offering was the complete destruction of the animal in an effort for sinful man to reach the holy God.  The animal sacrificed was to be a male with no defects.  Leviticus 6:8-13 describes the traditional burnt offering.

⁸ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ⁹ “Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering. The burnt offering shall be on the hearth on the altar all night until the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it. ¹⁰ And the priest shall put on his linen garment and put his linen undergarment on his body, and he shall take up the ashes to which the fire has reduced the burnt offering on the altar and put them beside the altar. ¹¹ Then he shall take off his garments and put on other garments and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place. ¹² The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not go out. The priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall arrange the burnt offering on it and shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. ¹³ Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.

A person could give a burnt offering at any time, although there were specific times it was required:
Every morning and evening (Exodus 29:38-42; Numbers 28:2)
Each Sabbath (Numbers 28:9-10)
The beginning of each month (Numbers 28:11)
At Passover (Numbers 28:19)
With the new grain/firstfruits offering at the Feast of Weeks (Numbers 28:27)
At the Feast of Trumpets/Rosh Hashanah (Numbers 29:1)
At the new moon (Numbers 29:6)

The Burnt offering was a sacrifice of atonement.  It was an acknowledgement of sin and an effort to renew relationship with the most holy God.  The animal was completely consumed by the fire. The ultimate fulfillment of the burnt offering is in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. His body was completely consumed, and He ascended to God, just as the word “burnt offering” means. But most importantly, His body as a sacrifice was the “one and done” atonement for our sins thereby securing our relationship with God.

Today’s reading includes Leviticus 1:1-3:17, Mark 1:29-2:12, Psalm 35:17-28, Proverbs 9:13-18.

Today, we are reading about offerings.  I don’t know about you, but all the cattle, sheep, goat, pigeon, turtledove, and grain offerings are a bit confusing to me.  But instead of looking at the details of the offerings, I began to think of what the overall point of it was.  It was, of course, a bridge between mortal man and our Heavenly Father.  The fact that there was a system of any kind to bridge that gap, is indeed a great mercy and amazing grace.  But all these sacrifices and offerings were only temporary.  Did God really want a goat or turtledove?  He could create another with a just word.  So, if these weren’t things that He needed, if He could create another for Himself with a single word, then what was the point in asking them to bring them to Him.  What was the purpose behind them?  There were multiple things that were acceptable offerings, so it wasn’t really about what was offered.  The point was the way the sacrifice was offered.  We see in Leviticus 1:2 that the Lord instructed that the cattle would be taken from the individual’s herd or flock.  We see that the sacrifice would need to be without defect.  In other words, they would need to pick out the best they had to give back to God.  If they presented a bird as a sacrifice, they would need to find a turtledove or a young pigeon.  This was a guide for those who were too poor to bring cattle or sheep, and yet they still needed to bring the best birds they could find.  Not a crow or a black bird, but a lovely turtledove or young pigeon. Even Jesus’ earthly parents hundreds of years later, kept the laws of sacrifice with pure hearts.

22 Then it was time for their purification offering, as required by the law of Moses after the birth of a child; so his parents took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. 23 The law of the Lord says, “If a woman’s first child is a boy, he must be dedicated to the Lord.”[a] 24 So they offered the sacrifice required in the law of the Lord—“either a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”[b]

                                                                                                           Luke 2:22-24 (NLT)

The point of all of the sacrifices was not so much the sacrifice but the heart of giving behind the sacrifice.  God wanted the best of their hearts.  He wanted and deserved first place.  That is why we see over and over that God told his people to bring their first fruits as sacrifice, their best sheep as offerings.  That is why God was so angry with Cain. He did not bring his best to God; he did not give with a pure, generous, and thankful heart. Let’s look at another time when God got angry.

¹³ It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money.¹⁵ Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables.

   John 2:13-15

¹² Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ¹³ “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’^[e] but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’^[f]”

                                                                                                              Matthew 21:12-13 

There were several reasons for the righteous anger Jesus displayed in these accounts.  First of all, it was during the celebration of the Passover.  The Passover was to be a remembrance and a celebration of the time with the death angel passed over the Israelites, resulting in their release from the slavery of Egypt.  This time of remembrance involved offering pure sacrifices to God, which required giving the first and the best.  The money changers and sellers of the cattle, sheep, and doves made it easy to give a lesser sacrifice.  “Oh, I will just buy something at the temple and be done with it.”  “I won’t worry about taking my best lamb, I can just pick something up at the temple.”  The market that had formed at the temple made it easy for the people to give less-than their best.

On the other hand, for those who had come long distances, perhaps it wasn’t wrong to buy something there for the sacrifice.  We see in the very next verses that Jesus encountered a blind man.  He surely couldn’t have gone out to find a turtledove or young pigeon.  So, though it wasn’t wrong for some people to buy their sacrifices there, what was wrong was the fact that the money changers and sellers of the sacrifices were cheating those who needed their products.  They were turning the pure house of God into a den of thieves.  And they were taking advantage of the vulnerable ones who had no other choice but to buy the sacrifice there and pay whatever was asked.  And if they couldn’t pay, they couldn’t make the sacrifice to God; they couldn’t keep the law.  God does get angry sometimes.  But it is always righteous anger.

Of course, the old system of sacrifice ended with the Ultimate Sacrifice when Jesus died and rose again.  No other sacrifice needs to be made.  But God still wants something from us.  He wants what he always wanted.  He wants our first and our best.  He wants us.  Look at the truth found in 1 Samuel 15:22.

22But Samuel replied, 

“What is more pleasing to the LORD:

your burnt offerings and sacrifices

or your obedience to his voice?

Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice,

and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.

God wants our love and obedience more than He wants any sacrifice we could offer Him.  One of my favorite poems is a stanza from In the Bleak Midwinter by Christina Rossetti.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I’d give Him a lamb.

If I were a wise man, I’d do my part.

What can I give Him?  I’ll give my heart.

Give Him your heart. Give Him your first and your best.  And He will give you more than you could ever hope or dream or imagine.