What can I give him?
Today marks the start of a mini series looking at different types of offerings, gifts that people bring to God. This was partly inspired by a member of the church who brought specific thank offerings to church following the birth of their child, which is not so unusual, but then also the first Sunday after he started walking and so on. This brought to mind the thank offerings mentioned in Leviticus. (eg.Leviticus 7:12) and all the other types of offering.
I wonder how many people, myself included, have started to try and read through the Bible only to flounder when they reach Leviticus. Genesis and Exodus are O.K. because they contain well-known and gripping stories but when we come to Leviticus we enter a foreign place where the mechanics of the sacrificial system are spelled out in great detail. There are butchery details about the fat and other parts which are to be burned, which parts may be eaten by whom and when, the type of cakes to be made and so on. Why are such details included, what may we learn from them? What are the principles which underly the details?
The fundamental principle which drives the entire sacrificial system is the call to holiness. “I am the Lord your God, consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy…..therefore be holy because I am holy” Lev.11:44-45. If we want to be in relationship with God then we must become like Him especially in regard to holiness. In the Christian era this holiness is mediated to us through faith in Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross. In Old Testament times this holiness was expressed through the sacrificial system, hence the insistence that not only the animals offered but also the priests should be spotless and without blemish. (lev.chapters 1-7 speaks of the blemish-free animals and 8-10 the requirement for priests without deformity.) Time and again in the opening chapters of Leviticus the animal brought for sacrifice is described as one “without defect” eg. 1:3,10; 3:1,6 and so on. Even with the grain offerings are to be of “fine flour without yeast” 2:4 – yeast in this case symbolising the impurity of sin.
Application
I wonder how many of you have played this game when at the beach this summer – looking for a perfectly white pebble? It is a good way of whiling away the time when sitting on a stony beach. Each time you think you have found one someone is bound to point out a tiny speck or blemish. Similarly it must have been very hard to find an animal without defect. Who would be the judge anyway? Ultimately there is only one sacrificial lamb who was truly without defect: “with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” 1Peter1:19 and “How much more then will the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our conscience from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.” Hebrews 9:14